


Through the Episodes

by Nichelle_Rae



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Adam Out Of Hell, Adam is Saved, Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angel Michael (Supernatural), Archangels, Cured Dean, Dean Bears The Mark of Cain, Dean Winchester - Freeform, Demon Dean Winchester, F/M, First Blade, Gen, Knight of Hell Dean, Lucifer (Supernatural) - Freeform, Mark of Cain, POV Castiel, References to Supernatural (TV), Sam Winchester - Freeform, Sibling Love, Sibling Sacrifice, Team Free Will, castiel - Freeform, fan fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-15
Updated: 2015-01-21
Packaged: 2018-02-17 12:11:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 29,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2309222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nichelle_Rae/pseuds/Nichelle_Rae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Castiel and Sam have captured Dean in his Demon/Knight of Hell form and seek help from Castiel's well-hidden close friend and sister Celeste. Celeste is the only archangel left and one that apprenticed under Michael. She may or may not have a way to cure Dean from the taint of the Mark of Cain, but Castiel and Sam are desperate to save Dean from himself.</p>
          </blockquote>





	1. Episode One - Holy Blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Castiel and Sam have captured Dean in his Demon/Knight of Hell form and seek help from Castiel's well-hidden close friend and sister Celeste. Celeste is the only archangel left and one that apprenticed under Michael. She may or may not have a way to cure Dean from the taint of the Mark of Cain, but Castiel and Sam are desperate to save Dean from himself.

Prologue: Desperate Times

_Castiel_

          The rattling of the demonic chains seemed so loud. I hated seeing them on Dean, but it was the only way to make sure he stayed under control until I got him the help he needed.

          “How much longer?” Sam asked from the passenger seat. He’d just about lost hope for saving his brother before something had occurred to me that I’d mentioned on impulse. Now I could only hope it would work.

          I looked at Dean’s face in the review mirror and flinched as his eyes went black. It felt like he was looking into me—as if he would, and could, eat my guts from the inside out and savor every second of it. “Not long.”

          I continued to follow the faint, but very unique, energy signature of my well-hidden sister. Even with my grace nearly burned out, her energy blazed a clear trail for me to follow. She had warded herself against every single angel it seemed, except for me.

          “Who _is_ this angel we’re going to see?” Sam asked.

          “Yeah Cas,” Dean said. I glanced into the mirror again. The deadness and evil in his eyes made my stomach sink. “Who are we visiting today?”    

          I steeled myself against his taunting and turned the Impala down a single lane dirt road. I would get my friend back to normal if it was the last thing I did. “An archangel.”

          Dean threw his head back and scoffed before meeting my eyes again in the mirror. “All the archangels are dead,” he said, his eyebrows going up with his light-hearted tone. “I killed them.”

          I put my eyes back on the road. “Not all of them.”

          We were in Wyoming. I felt Celeste’s energy signature leading into a beautiful, white farmhouse on the left side of the road. I pulled into a small dirt plot that served as a driveway, parked the car and pushed the door open. Stepping out and looking up at the house, I immediately felt guilty. I did not want to drag my sister back into this mess.

          Sam pulled Dean out of the car and toward the four wooden steps that led up to the wide, wrap-around porch. The house itself rested on a small, well-manicured grass area, but just beyond it was a tall grass meadow that stretched outward through tree lines on either side for as far as the human eye can see. The shimmer of the sun reflected off the curve of a shallow, rushing stream in the middle of the meadow before the water turned out of sight toward the trees on the right side.

          I sighed heavily. Celeste deserved the peace and beauty that she must have found here. She had always felt a particular reverential love for our Father’s creation. I knew her well enough though, to know that she cared about Sam and Dean and would help if she could. She was the only option I had left. And she and Cain had history.

          I brought Dean up the stairs towards the front door. Sam stayed off the porch, looking up at both of us helplessly. He was about at the end of his rope concerning his demonic brother. Celeste was it. If she couldn’t do anything, no one could, and Sam was feeling the weight of that right now. Looking at Dean’s black, dead eyes one more time, I felt the weight of it, too. I steeled myself and knocked on my sister’s door.

 

Part One: A Brief Reunion 

_Celeste_

           The hesitant knock made me freeze mid-word. I put down the book I’d been reading and looked over my shoulder at my front door. No one but my neighbor visited me and it was not the usual day he came. I subtly gripped the archangel blade in my hand. With the chaos of the last few years, there was no telling who it could be, but I’d been left alone so far because no one knew where I was.

          I felt my lip twitch as I made my way to the door. I slowly and carefully cracked it open, then peeked out, and I could not believe who I was seeing! My heart leapt up into my throat and I pulled the door wide open. I hadn’t seen Castiel, my big brother and best friend, in about five human years—not since we, and fourteen of my brothers and sisters, had rescued Dean Winchester from Hell together.

          “Cas!” I could hardly contain myself as I threw my arms around his neck. He wrapped his arms around me, picked me up, carried me outside and set me back down on my feet on my porch. I pulled away and looked into his eyes. “I thought you were dead!”

          “I was, a couple times.”

          “What?”

          “Celeste, I need your help.”

          I grinned awkwardly. “Straight to the point, huh? No time for hello?”

          He looked at me sympathetically, “I’m sorry, but”—he sighed—“this is important.”

          I was uncomfortable now. If he was coming to me for help after we’d been apart these last few years, this couldn’t be good. “All right. Of course. What is it?”

          Castiel didn’t answer me, only turned his head to look over his shoulder. I tilted my head to the side to see past him, and my eyes went wide. My warrior instincts immediately kicked in and I drew my blade and moved to attack the creature behind him.

          Before I realized it, Cas was in front of me, holding me back. “Cel, wait! WAIT!”

          I stared at my brother, appalled! “Cas! That’s a Knight of Hell!”

          “Listen to me! Wait!”

          I took a few deep breaths, trying to calm down as the creature looked at me smugly. “Oh, I hate to spoil a good meal,” he said, “but I’m going to enjoy tearing this sexy ass apart and then eating your heart for lunch. Farm girls, mmm. Hot bod. Cut off shorts. Long tan legs. And what is that? A size-D rack?” He shuddered and made a hissing, sucking sound. “Yum.”

          I clenched my teeth. “Cas…” I said in a tone of warning. I was more powerful than Castiel, and he knew it. He couldn’t hold me back for long. “You’ve got three seconds to explain.”

         Castiel sighed. “I need you to look at his face—his human face, not his demonic one.”

          I glanced at Cas, then reluctantly sighed and put my attention back on the abomination. As the deformed, demonic face faded into his human face, I nearly dropped my angel blade. My mouth fell open and my stomach heaved so violently I nearly threw up. “Dean…” I gasped.

          Only then did I look past Dean and see Sam Winchester standing at the bottom of the porch steps, looking sullen and worried. I blinked once in disbelief. I blinked again, and then looked back at Castiel. “Cas, why in the name of Heaven is Dean Winchester a Knight of Hell?”

          He sighed. “It gets worse.”

          “How can this get worse?”

          Castiel walked over to Dean and grabbed his right arm, holding it out for me to see the inside of his forearm. My head started pounding with familiar rage, a warrior’s rage, when I saw the Mark of Cain stamped there.

          “I know you and Cain have…” Cas began, but I was already gone. I think I heard the wooden banister of my porch crack from the force that I flew off at.

          Not Dean Winchester. This couldn’t be happening to him!

          I searched all over for Cain’s specific energy signature, a signature with which I was all too familiar. I was probably the only angel in creation who could find him on this earth. It only took me a split second before I found him in Utah. I planted myself right in his living room and I glared at him. He was sitting at his kitchen table a few meters away reading a book. It took him a moment to realize I was there.

          When he did, his face was a mix of joy and horror. “Celeste.”

          I moved like lightening, putting myself in front of him with my blade at his throat. “You gave your Mark to Dean Winchester?” I asked with my teeth clenched so hard that my face was trembling.

          His eyes betrayed no fear; they never did. I did see him try to swallow heavily, but my blade was too tight against his Adam’s apple. “He wanted it.”

          “I don’t care!” I grabbed his throat in one hand, picked him clean up off his feet, and slammed him onto his back on the kitchen floor before getting down beside him and holding my blade to his neck again. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” Cain didn’t respond, just stared up at me, pretty much waiting for me to kill him. “Dean Winchester is the one human who has done the most work for my Father since His own Son walked the earth—and you gave him that demonic Mark?”

          Cain lifted his head slightly, a daring challenge in his eyes. “Have you ever _met_ Dean Winchester? Of course you haven’t. You think you know the man because you helped pull him up, bloody and unconscious, from the pit?” My entire body shook with rage, and the only reason I didn’t slit his throat right now was because he was the only one that could help me fix Dean. “There was no telling that man anything. I tried to warn him about the Mark, but he didn’t want to hear it.”

          I put some pressure on my blade, drawing a drop of blood from him. “You knew better.”

          Cain began sweating slightly. “You’re right. I did.”

          I had to try to force myself to calm down. “You did this,” I said dangerously. “Now you’re going to tell me how to undo it.”

          Cain's nostrils were flaring. “You won’t like it.”

          I removed my blade from his throat. “Try me.”

          “We’ll need some very rare ingredients.”

          “I’ll get them.”

          He met my eyes. “One vital ingredient is necessary. That’s the one you won’t like.”

          I got off him and pulled him to his feet by the front of his shirt. “I don’t care.” His blue eyes pierced into my being, a wrenching gaze which I had steeled myself against a very long time ago. “Well?” I barked impatiently.

          He suddenly smiled at me, and my heart clenched. “It’s good to see you again, Cel.”

          My lip twitched, and I glared at him. “Wish I could say the same.”

          The smile on his face faded slightly and he gave me a small nod. He went to the table and bent over a piece of paper. “Here is what we need first,” he said, and he wrote down the ingredients. “You go get them, and I’ll prepare what I can on my end.”

          I flew off without another word. I had a good idea what the last ingredient would be, and I wasn’t even worried about it. The world needed Dean Winchester more than it needed me.

 

Part Two – Anticipation 

_Castiel_

          We waited on Celeste’s front porch for hours, Dean spewing vile insults and smug musings. I wished there was a demonic gag I could put over his mouth. Sam hadn’t been able to listen very long, so I’d told him to take a walk.

          I could certainly see what attracted Celeste to this place, and why she hadn’t wanted to be found. It was all of my Father’s beauty of the earth in one panoramic glance. There were mountains to gaze at, a stream, a large field, and a big open sky that had stars shining in it as the sun went down. Even the dirt road next to the house was beautiful.

          “What’s the matter, Cas?” Dean said with false sympathy. “You look more stressed than usual. Could it be that your hot girlfriend might not have a way to change me back?”

          I didn’t answer him, but that’s exactly what I was afraid of. I wanted my friend back. Dean Winchester was the last man in the entire human race that deserved to be demonized. I shook my head though, because I couldn’t help but feel grateful as well for the lack of care that came with the demonized version of Dean. He didn’t carry the burdens he carried in his human life—burdens he didn’t deserve either. He was free of them in this demonic form. In this form, he didn’t care about anything, and for a man like Dean Winchester, that was actually a good thing. But I knew once Dean was back to normal he would be grateful to not be one of these abominations he’d hated and hunted his whole life. At least as a human, burdens and all, he did a lot of good in this world and even had been able to save it a time or two…or three.

          Dean stood up, making his chains rattle. “Here’s your little bitch now.”

          Sure enough, in that instant, I saw Celeste return. She appeared in a crouch on the banister of the porch with a sullen look on her face. She met my eyes, leapt off the banister onto the porch, and came towards me. I stood up and approached her.

          She glanced around. “Where’s Sam?”

          “Baby boy couldn’t take the heat,” Dean said hatefully, baring his teeth for a brief instant.

          I glanced at Dean, annoyed, and then looked back at my sister. “I had him take a walk.”

          Celeste nodded, “You better take a walk too, Cas.”

          “What?”

          She nodded. “Give me the key to unlock Dean and get out of here.”

          I think I actually flinched. “I won’t leave you with him.”

          “There is nothing you can do to help me, Cas. I can see that your grace is almost burned out. I won’t ask you how.” She met my eyes intensely. “But I need you to trust me and go.”

          I glanced at Dean, who had the most evil smirk I’d ever seen on his face. “Cel, he’ll just blip out if you unlock him and we’ll never find him again.”

          “Castiel,” she said with strained patience, “I know how demons work. Don’t make me order you, please.”

          I sighed and looked at Dean. He was already looking at Celeste, and she was looking at him. Suddenly, I realized how dangerous this was about to get. As if to confirm my foreboding feeling, thunder rumbled in the distance.

          “Where is the First Blade?” Cel asked, not taking her eyes off Dean, though she was addressing me.

          “Sam has it.”

          “Dean needs it.”

          I snapped my head to look at her. “What?”

          “Cas,” Cel said, meeting my eyes, “Stop doubting me. You know better than that.”

          I swallowed as Dean bared his teeth with a terrifying challenge in his eyes. He looked at Celeste. “You’re a dumb bitch, you know that?”

          Celeste gave him a fake smile, “We’ll see.” She held out her hand to me. “Give me the key and go get the First Blade from Sam.”

          I reluctantly rested the key in her palm. Taking Dean by the shoulder, Celeste shoved him roughly off her porch and onto her well-manicured front yard, which stretched backward until the mound of land that began the tree line rose up. With a heavy sigh, I went around toward the back of the house and found Sam. He was standing with one hand in his pocket and the First Blade wrapped in a cloth tucked under the other arm.

          “Sam.”

          He faced me, looking dreadfully weary. “Is your friend back?”

          I nodded.

          He swallowed heavily. Tears brimmed in his eyes. “Can she help?”

          I met his eyes. I wasn’t sure what I should say. I could say yes, but if I was wrong, it would give him false hope. I wasn’t sure he could take another hit like that concerning his brother. But if I told him no, that could be a lie. Celeste might be able to help. As Sam looked at me waiting for an answer, I wanted desperately to answer reassuringly, but couldn’t. “I don’t know, Sam. She might.”

          He nodded and looked away, still fighting off the tears.

          “Sam,” I said reluctantly, “she said she needs the First Blade.”

          He snapped his head to me, looking suspicious. “Why?”

          “I don’t know.”

          His eyes suddenly held the most intensity I’d seen in days as he took a breath. “Do you trust her?”

          I paused and debated that answer—though only for an instant before I smiled. “I do.”

          “Really?”

          I nodded, "Yes."

          Sam studied me for a moment then finally handed the cloth-wrapped blade to me. He turned and began to walk back towards the front of the house.

          “Actually,” I said, stopping him. He looked over his shoulder at me. “Celeste asked us to stay away while she does whatever it is she’s about to do.”

          Sam faced me and pointed towards the front of the house. “I’m not leaving my brother like this.”

          “Sam,” I said calmly but firmly, “Celeste is more powerful than I am. Even if my grace wasn’t fading, she would be more powerful than me. If we appear around the side of that house, she’ll just zap us both away. It’s not worth crossing her.”

          “I don’t know her, Cas,” he said stubbornly.

          “But I do,” I argued. “Even if you don’t trust her”—I met his eyes—“trust me.”

          Sam looked away and I saw him debating for a few moments before he looked back at me and nodded.

          “Thank you.”

          I walked past him and rounded the side of the house. I saw Dean and Celeste standing at the far side of the yard, closest to the beginning of the tree line. They were facing each other with Dean still in chains. When I approached them, Dean’s head snapped in my direction. I felt the same ugly pit form in my stomach when he looked at me with those demon eyes.

          “Cas,” he purred sarcastically, “Cel here has been telling me all sorts of interesting details about this cure she thinks she has. Did you know it involves fighting and killing me?”

          I looked at my sister, but she didn’t take her eyes off Dean. I could practically hear her voice in my head telling me to trust her. I looked back at Dean’s horrible black eyes. “So be it,” I said and put the First Blade in Celeste’s palm before I walked off without even looking back.

          As I went around the side of the house again, I saw Sam sitting on the ground beside the dirt road. He looked up at me and, without a word, I sat myself down next to him to wait.

 

Part Three – The Cost

_Celeste_

          Darkness had already pretty much set in, and the wind had picked up, making heavy clouds roll in. Thunder could be heard in the distance, but I knew this weather wasn’t normal. It was all of the angels gathering above to see what was about to happen. The worst part about this was now they would all know where I’d been hiding out for the last few human years. Goodness knows they had searched hard enough for me after the chaos that had ensued after Sam had put my big brother in the pit with Lucifer. I guess their finding me wouldn’t matter for long though.

          “Do not interfere,” I said, looking up at the sky at everyone who was watching as I unwrapped the First Blade from the tan cloth. “No matter what you see or what happens, do not come down here. That’s an order.”

          I met Dean’s eyes again, then grabbed his hand and put the First Blade in his palm. His eyes challenged me arrogantly as I looked down and unlocked the demonic cuffs on his wrists. “You think you have the juice to take me? Really?”

          “Dean, you have no idea who I am.” As my eyes flicked up to meet his, a flash of lightning ripped across the sky and the first few rain drops fell onto my shoulders.

          He leaned towards me. “You’re a dead angel walking, that’s who you are.”

          I smirked, keeping my eyes locked on his. “We’ll see.”

          Thunder crashed loudly above and the rain became heavy as I reached up to unlock the collar around his neck. As soon as it dropped to the ground, Dean blinked out of sight. I waited only a second before I heard the loud sizzle of flesh and his cry of pain. He appeared again a few feet away from me at the edge of my front yard with his skin smoking. He looked back at me hatefully.

          “Salt coated iron,” I said, meeting his eyes. Dean looked down and saw the continuous line of iron rails that were just barely poking out of the ground. “A complete circle of them around my yard. I buried them under the grass a few years ago in case any evil came to visit me. I figured pulling them up now to keep you from bailing wouldn’t be a bad idea. I know demons are cowards.” I smirked. “Congratulations, you’ve just found yourself in a cage match with the most powerful angel in Heaven.”

          “You?” he said smugly, his eyes turning black as he came towards me again. His upper lip twitched, revealing his teeth for an instant. “I doubt that.” Rain poured down as Dean came to stand in front of me, his eyes blacker than the night sky. “Mind if I test that theory?”

          “By all means.”

          He took off his soaking wet shirt and threw it to the ground. I watched as The Mark of Cain began to glow and Dean powered up. The same evil red glow that emanated from the Mark, emanated from his back, revealing the shadows of his leathery demonic wings. They looked like giant bat wings as he expanded them and took a low fighting stance, gripping the First Blade. The light glowed in his black eyes too, turning his irises the same fiery red.

          I smirked. “Cute trick, but I can do it too.” I took off my open flannel shirt and tossed it away, leaving me in jean shorts and a white tank top. I powered up, my irises glowing an intense bright blue as a golden white light expanded out behind me, revealing the shadows of the six feathery wings on my back.

          Now came the proverbial nail in his coffin; in my hand I made appear the two most dangerous weapons in creation. Even Dean’s demonic form recognized them, and I saw him briefly falter in fear for the first time. The Glory Blades.

          Since the dawn of time, these two blades had belonged to my brother Michael. But they’d been passed to me when he went into the cage. Even though I was a younger angel, I was the best warrior Heaven had to offer, and I had been the only one in all of Heaven to apprentice under Michael before he’d been cast into the pit.

          “The Glory Blades?” Dean said, trying to remain unaffected.

          “The Glory Blades. Not so cocky now, are you?”

          “ _You_ have the Glory Blades?”

          I held up one of the beautiful crystal clear blades. They looked like short, glass scimitars, but they were stronger than any substance known to mankind or Heaven. “Uh, yeah. That’s what these are.”

          God had made these weapons with His own hands and had given them to Michael when Michael was created—the first angel. The only blade that was even slightly formidable to the Glory Blades was the First Blade, but the Glory Blades killed much more quickly. The First Blade actually had to inflict fatal damage in order to kill something. But with the Glory Blades, all you had to do was nick any creature in creation and it would evaporate into a substance that was almost like ash—ash that would quickly vanish into nothing.

          Before I made a move, I sighed and wondered where the blades would go after Dean killed me.

 

Part Four – The Redeemed and Rescued

_Castiel_

          Something turned inside of me then. There’d been something about the look in Celeste’s eyes before I walked away that was unsettling. I couldn’t recall it right away, not until I found myself thinking about Dean as a human. He always had that reserved look of defeat in his eyes—as if he didn’t just expect to die sometime soon, but was actually welcoming the chance. But because of duty and his brother, he kept going, kept fighting. Celeste had had that same look in her eyes.

          I slowly stood up, rain water dripping off the ends of my coat and my hair, as I looked wide-eyed in the direction of Celeste’s front yard.

          “Cas?” Sam asked from the ground. “What is it?”

          Realization dawned on me as a flash of lightning tore across the sky. She was going to die!

          I ran towards the front of the house. Sam was on his feet fast and close behind me. I rounded the corner and bound up the stairs onto the porch, but before I could even set foot on the grass, I saw Celeste’s eyes already on me.

_Don’t Cas!_ she said in my head, making me stop in my tracks and double over in pain. It felt like a lightning bolt went through my skull. _Do not interfere, big brother. Dean himself needs to cut me fatally with the First Blade or it won’t work._ I met her eyes helplessly across the grass as she tried to give me a reassuring smile. _The world needs Dean Winchester more than it needs me anyway._

          I wanted to argue with her, but she was right. Dean was desperately needed in the world, and he needed to get back to normal.

_Is this what Cain told you needed to happen?_ I asked.

_Yes._

_Can you trust him?_

          She gave me a gentle smile then. _If a small amount of temporarily purified human blood can cure demons, imagine what all of an archangel’s holy blood can cure._

          I swallowed heavily. “I’m sorry,” I said aloud, knowing she could hear me.

_It’s okay, Cas. I want to do this for Dean._

          With that, Celeste attacked Dean. It was a weak attack. I’d seen Celeste in 6,000 years worth of battles in Heaven. I knew her fighting style. She was a younger angel, but formidable enough to get to apprentice under Michael, chosen over Raphael, Zachariah, Uriel, and every other angel in the entirety of Heaven. She was putting zero effort into attacking Dean, and I could see it.

          They clashed blades and thunder clapped so loudly above I actually found myself flinching. Lightning flashed so bright that it allowed a clear view for thirty miles in every direction. Rain water sprayed off the ends of Dean and Celeste’s hair as they spun around and fought each other in a fiercely deadly battle. Celeste did a few weak body maneuvers, kicks and punches she loved to use, just to make it look to Dean she was putting up a good fight. Dean couldn’t know the cure was actually Celeste’s death, so she pretended to fight hard.

          I was torn between two thought processes as I watched this unfold. I wanted Dean back. There was no doubting that, and I was willing to let my sister kill herself to bring him back, but at the same time I thought about was what a loss it was going to be for Heaven. Heaven needed her skill and leadership! We’d needed it since Michael went into the cage. She was supposed to have taken Michael’s place, but things got complicated when Sam and Adam had gone into the pit with Michael and Lucifer.

          I watched carefully as Celeste moved her arm in an upward arc, as if to cut Dean across his chest, but I saw her intentionally leave the opening in her attack for Dean’s arm to come through and across her throat. With a disgusting ripping sound that only I could hear, the First Blade tore into my little sister’s throat, leaving a bright blue glowing stripe in its wake. Celeste was instantly on her back on the wet ground, holding her bleeding neck.

          Dean jumped on top of her, holding the First Blade to her cheek. “Not so cocky now, are you bitch!” he screamed.

          Celeste smiled and, moving faster than even I could see, snatched the First Blade from his hand and sliced his arm open right over the Mark! Dean cried out in pain as a nasty red glowing light appeared from the wound. Suddenly Celeste took her own blood-covered hand off her throat and gripped Dean’s arm over the slashed Mark. Dean’s scream and the sizzling of his skin filled the entire clearing.

          Cel then telepathically pulled a flat metal tray out from the trees, a tray with ingredients on it that I didn't even recognize. In a last burst of strength, Celeste pulled Dean’s arm over her head and slammed it down onto the tray. Dean screamed so loud his voice cracked. Unbelievably, Cel then sat up and leaned over Dean’s arm and the tray, letting herself bleed out from her throat.

          I was gripping the porch banister so hard that I accidently crushed it into splinters. I watched my sister’s head gradually get heavier and heavier, until her forehead was resting on top of Dean’s arm. With Cel nearly dead, Dean was able to yank his arm out of her grip. He stumbled backwards, landing on his back in the wet grass. His entire body trembled and convulsed.

          “Dean!” Sam cried out and made an attempt to run to his brother.

          I blocked him and held him back. “Sam, wait! Not yet!”

          We watched on in horror as a black, smoky mass seeped out Dean’s body and began to pulsate around him. It looked like demon smoke, only thinner, like black mist or fog. It writhed around as if it had a life of its own and was desperately trying to cling to Dean or get back inside of him somehow. It was the impurities of his soul that had caused him to be demonized; the Mark of Cain being among them. After about ten minutes, Dean finally relaxed. He went so completely still I thought he was dead for a moment, but then his chest began to gently rise and fall. As I looked on at my friend, the rain slowed down, and I saw the demonic face—twisted black, scarred, burned, and deformed skin, wings and all—fade. The black mist then dissipated until I was just looking at Dean again.

          Both Sam and I ran onto the grass, Sam collapsing at his brother’s side. “Dean. Dean!”

          “Stay with him!” I cried and ran to my sister.

          She was completely still. With my heart breaking, I got down next to her. I gently touched her shoulder, rolling her onto her back, and looked at her dead, white face. I felt the weight of this loss like I never expected I would. An archangel, my little sister, had just sacrificed herself to save a single human. I suddenly felt closer to her than I had in our entire 6,000 year existence, and we’d been pretty close in that time. I knew what she’d done, because I’d done it a couple times myself. Complete and utter sacrifice, enormous sacrifice for even one human, was something I was familiar with. I knew about making the kind of sacrifice that didn’t make sense to anyone in creation, except the one doing the sacrificing. I knew about sacrifice that looked foolish, reckless, or irrational to others, but made sense to me.

          Heaven needed a leader like her. Someone had to remind us of what Gadreel only remembered too late—that it was about our mission to the humans. They were my Father’s most precious and beloved creations, and it was our duty as angels to protect them. Celeste had been partly wrong. The world definitely needed Dean Winchester, but Heaven needed her.

          I looked back at Sam and Dean. I wouldn’t burden them with a goodbye. Sam had too much to worry about as it was, and I wasn’t looking forward to seeing Dean carry the burdens that he always did as a human. It was too painful. I sighed softly and pressed my hand to Celeste’s forehead. Bringing her back would burn out the rest of my grace. But if it meant putting Heaven back in order under Celeste’s command, it was a sacrifice I was genuinely happy to make.

          I powered up with what grace I had left. My eyes and body lit up brightly, which drew Sam’s attention. “Cas? Cas, what are you doing?!”

          I didn’t bother with an answer. I didn’t have the strength anyway. As I felt my power drain completely from me, I felt blood begin to rush through Celeste’s veins again.

          “Castiel!” Sam cried.

          I collapsed onto my side before Cel even sat up.

 

Part Five – Rest for the Wicked

_Celeste_

          Suddenly my eyes snapped open and, for a moment, I wondered what the hell had happened. Confused, I managed to turn my head to the side, and I saw Castiel fall onto the ground.

          My eyes flew wide and I scrambled over to him. “Castiel!” I yelled. I was on my knees next to him when I suddenly realized what he’d done. “No,” I breathed. I looked down at my brother and quietly began to weep. Gently lifting his upper body, I cradled him in my arms. “Oh you sweet dumb idiot,” I said to him as I brushed the wet hair back from his forehead. He’d just burned out the last of his grace to save me.

          And I was not okay with that.

          Clenching my jaw, I put my other hand under Castiel’s legs and flew him to my bedroom inside the house. I heard Sam calling me and Cas’ names from outside, but I didn’t care. I gently laid my brother down on my bedroom floor and shoved the bed over to one side of the room with one hand, revealing a small metal plate in the floor. I hooked my finger in the hole and tore open the hidden compartment where I kept something sacred and powerful—something that would not only save Castiel, which I could do with my own power right now, but would do something I couldn’t. It would make him whole again by giving him a new source of grace and his wings.

          I pulled out the square foot iron box that had every demonic warding symbol etched into the metal. As I rested it on the bedroom floor, I heard fast and heavy footsteps hurrying up the stairs. I glanced up and saw Sam appear at the top of the steps with Dean coming up a little slower and wrapped in Sam’s outer coat. I didn’t take long to look at Dean because if Cas didn’t come back, I just might end up killing Dean anyway. But he looked at me with the deepest look of shame and regret I’d ever seen on a human face. I resisted the urge to snarl at him and opened the iron box. I pulled out both of the white metal cuffs and crawled back over to Castiel. Lifting his right arm, I snapped one of the cuffs on his wrist.

          “What are you doing?” Sam asked.

          I didn’t bother answering him as I snapped on the other white metal cuff on my right wrist. “Shield your eyes,” I warned the boys.

          This was going to hurt...a lot.

          I lifted Cas’ arm and locked my metal cuff with his via a small locking mechanism in the metal. Immediately the essence of me and my brother melded together and an intense bright light, Heaven’s light, filled the room and probably lit up the world a mile beyond my house. The magic quickly assessed the damage done to Cas, and I braced myself. With a loud tearing sound and a searing hot pain, a pair of my wings was ripped off my back. I threw my head back and screamed as the burning sensation seemed to take over my entire body. All I knew was the sizzling, hot, boiling pain on my back.

          Castiel took in a deep breath and sat up, and I watched as a new source of grace lit up his eyes a bright sparkling blue. I was panting through clenched teeth from the pain. It felt like my skin was boiling off my back. I trembled and sweated as it went on, but I watched as the wings I had just sacrificed for Castiel sprouted out from his back. Castiel looked over his shoulder and, with the most precious look of adoration, he stretched out his new wings. He expanded them wide, and a small smile spread across his face. I offhandedly wondered how long he’d been without his wings.

          Castiel then looked at me, and regret washed over his features as Heaven’s light faded and our cuffs unlocked. I didn’t even have the strength to hold myself up. I cried out in pain and collapsed over my knees, putting my forehead on the floor. Castiel was quickly in front of me, lifting me up so my face was resting against his chest and he held me close. “Why? Why did you do that?”

          My back was still boiling, but I managed to smile a little. “Because you’re my brother.”

          He petted my hair and kissed the top of my head multiple times. He shifted his body a little and I felt him pinch the bottom of my shirt, then gently lift it up exposing my back. “Damn it,” he said in soft horror.

          I couldn’t imagine what he was seeing. “It’s okay, Cas. It will pass.”

          Cas just continued to hold me close and pet my hair while my back burned. Sam and Dean had made their way into the room and silently sat on the floor, looking at me and Castiel. Dean sat in the farthest corner, his head hanging in shame.

          It took a few minutes, but my back eventually stopped burning. I carefully sat up, testing it out by stretching a bit. It was a little sore but not deadly. I blew out a breath and smiled at Castiel. “I’m okay. Now the fun part is going to be trying to learn to walk again with only four wings.”

          Cas managed to smile brightly even though his eyes were a little glossy with unshed tears. “Thank you.”

          I nodded. “You’re welcome.”

          “Thank you,” Sam said, his voice cracking. I turned and saw him looking at me with the same expression of glossy-eyed gratitude.

          I nodded at him as well. “You’re welcome.”

          I looked at Dean, but he couldn’t even meet my eyes. He tried, he certainly tried, but he couldn’t.

          “What are those white cuffs?” Sam asked, nodding to my and Castiel’s wrists.

          Cas touched his, unclasping it, and handed it back to me. “Battle braces,” he said. “All angels wear one into battle.” He looked at me. “I can’t believe you have these.”

          “Just one?” Sam asked.

          I nodded as I put them back in the iron box. “They’re kind of a rare ‘fix all’ instrument. When joined, they can heal any fatal injury, which certainly comes in handy on the battlefield. Or they can be used as a sort of angel mind-meld to make two angels more deadly as they think and fight as one. They shouldn’t have even left Heaven but”—I smiled a little—“when I left I wasn’t leaving mine or Castiel’s behind. Heaven’s politics were not exactly stable or agreeable at that time, so I took them to keep them safe.”

          Sam smiled a little. “So you two have a long history?”

          Cas and I glanced at each other with a smile. “Only about 6,000 years worth of being combat partners and best friends,” I said.

          Castiel looked at Sam, “Celeste and I were created seconds apart. We were the first angels created so close together, so we’ve been pretty inseparable since.”

          I sighed. “That is until Heaven fell apart.”

          “What happened then?” Sam asked.

          I smiled and stood up. It took me a second to stand properly. When I did I reached down and pulled Castiel to his feet. Then I carefully went to Sam and pulled him to his feet too. “That’s long story for another time. Right now, you all are going to need to sleep.” I looked back at Castiel. “You too.”

          “Me? I don’t sleep.”

          I gave him a small smile. “I’m not sure how it happened Cas, but you have a soul now.” His eyes went wide. “I felt it in the cuff-meld. You’ll be sleeping from now on, big brother. I’m not sure about eating or drinking yet because”—I chuckled ironically—“an angel having a soul has never happened before.”

          Cas blinked a few times in disbelief. “Angels don’t have souls. How can I have a soul?”

          I carefully went over to him, not quite having my balance, and rested my hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay. We’ll figure it out later.” I realized something and looked at him with some concern. “You must have endured some suffering since we’ve been apart.” Castiel glanced away from me, confirming the truth. “My first guess would be that a soul like yours could only be borne from experiencing suffering. You have compassion and empathy on a level that angels never get to experience.” I smiled brightly to try to put him at ease. “Looks like you and I have some serious catching up to do about what’s happened since we got Dean out of Hell.”

          “Wait! What?” Sam cried. Dean’s attention was on me now as he looked up at me from the floor. “You helped Cas get Dean out of Hell?”

          I looked at Sam, confused. I wasn’t sure if he was joking or not, but then I remembered he was human. “Uh, yeah,” I said with a small teasing smile. “Castiel was a brave and powerful soldier back then, but a single angel can’t lay siege to Hell alone and pull a soul out.” I looked over at Dean. “Sixteen of us went down to get you.” I smiled sadly at him. “And four of us came back out.” Dean looked at me in disbelief. I sighed, “But that’s also a story for another time. You all need to get some rest. I have three bedrooms -” I took a step to move the bed back to where it belonged, but the weight on my back was different and I nearly fell over. Castiel grabbed me from behind and held me before I could fall.

          “Are you all right?” he asked.

          “Ooo, yeah, I’m just…off balance.” I looked back at him. “My back is lighter now.” Cas gave me another sad smile. “It’s okay, Cas. It’s not like I have much need for six wings. I’m glad I could give you yours back.” I blew out a breath and tried to get my balance and walk again. I stumbled a little like a drunk, but managed to put the bed back where it belonged. “I have three bedrooms, so you all can sleep up here. I don’t sleep, so I’ll be downstairs. My vessel had a husband who passed away about a year ago, so there are still some men’s clothes and sleepwear in the closets and drawers. Help yourself.” I sighed. “I need to go lie down. Apparently dying, and coming back to life, and losing a pair of wings takes a toll on even archangels.” Castiel and Sam gave me appreciative smiles. “Goodnight. We can all talk tomorrow.”

          Cas and Sam nodded and, still not walking right, I headed out of the room and toward the stairs. Pressing my palms against the walls of the stairwell, I carefully made my way down to the living room. I wouldn’t be there very long. I knew the kind of night Dean was in for, and I just had to wait.

          It was a couple of hours before the lights went off upstairs. I’m sure Cas and Sam were catching Dean up and making sure he was okay. Soon after though, sure enough, I heard Dean’s moans and wails as his demonic nightmares and memories plagued his subconscious. I shifted my eyes to the ceiling as Dean cried out in his sleep. I sighed, put down my crossword puzzle, and got off my couch. Still not completely balanced, I headed up the stairs. Dean’s moans and cries got louder.

          At the top of the stairs I already saw Castiel and Sam standing outside their bedroom doors looking toward the room Dean was in at the end of the hall.

          “It’s all right guys,” I said as I passed them. “I’ve got him.”

          They both looked at me and nodded a little helplessly. “What are you gonna do?” Sam asked.

          I looked back at him. “Just sit with him.”

          “Will that help?”

          I nodded. “Angels have an essence, a calming essence that sort of just exudes out of them. We’re made up of holy energy, things like joy, hope, and peace that can be felt by humans without them even really realizing it. It’s felt more potently by a human who is sleeping because his guard is down. My presence will calm him without me needing to do anything.”

          Sam nodded. I gave him a small reassuring smile and went into Dean’s room while Cas and Sam went back into theirs. Moonlight was pouring in through the window on the left wall, which made the sweat shine on Dean’s face, back, and chest as he twitched and tossed in bed. As soon as I closed the bedroom door, he went a little more still. I actually managed to smile as I went to the bookshelf on the right and looked for something to read.

          Dean suddenly moaned again, forcing me to look at him. My brows dropped when I saw him still writhing around a bit. That was strange, but okay. I grabbed a book off the shelf and took a chair and put it right next to Dean’s bed. The closer I got, the more still he went. I sighed and sat down in the chair, putting my legs up on the bed. I sunk down, getting comfy, and opened the book.

          I only read about a paragraph before a gentle touch on my ankle made me jump and my eyes snapped up. Dean was still asleep, but he had moved himself closer to my legs, nearly bending himself in half so his forehead was touching the side of my calf and his hand rested on top of my ankle. My brows dropped in confusion and serious concern when I realized he was still trembling terribly. The position he had twisted himself into did not look very comfortable. It was as if he was so desperate for the peace I exuded that he was reaching for it even in his sleep, getting as close to its source as he possibly could.

          I had never seen Dean Winchester so unbelievably vulnerable, and that terrified me. He was not a weak man by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, he was too strong and stubborn for his own good. That’s how he kept getting himself into these world-altering messes. But it’s also what made him the great hunter and man he was.

          I placed the book on the nightstand next to the bed and carefully took my legs out from under his hands, setting my feet on the floor, and stood up from the chair. My concern for this man went higher than I really thought it was able to go. Still confused, I gently sat myself on the bed next to him, putting my back against the headboard. I pulled my legs up and watched Dean to see what he would do. He uncurled and repositioned himself so he was resting alongside my legs. He wrapped his arm around my thigh and held onto my leg the way a child holds a teddy bear. He even rested his head on top of my thigh instead of using a pillow. Only then did he stop trembling.

          I sighed and relaxed a bit, but still looked down at him in concern. I gently rested my hand on his shoulder and watched him sleep for a moment. As I looked at him, I oddly found myself thinking about what Cain had said to me. I really didn’t know Dean Winchester. I knew about him. Hell, the whole cosmos knew who Sam and Dean Winchester were. The world was supposed to end with them; the entire story of creation was supposed to end with them.

          What kind of man was Dean Winchester, really? Strong? Sure. But why? And how? I’d kind of kept an eye on him throughout his whole life—every angel in Heaven was pretty much required to check in with both the Winchester boys once in a while—but I really didn’t know him. What kind of man had the gall, the strength, even just the _ability_ to withstand and derail something of such magnitude like the apocalypse?

          I wondered about Sam, too. He’d taken on Lucifer, my incredibly evil and incredibly powerful older brother, in a mind wrestling match…and won. I didn’t know humans were capable of such strength. To outmatch someone like Lucifer? A human? I shook my head in disbelief every time I thought about it.

          I’d have to check in with Sam later. Right now I was curious about Dean. Dean, for some reason, was the only one of the two brothers who suffered from such self-loathing that I couldn’t understand why he hadn’t thrown himself off a bridge yet. Something…there was something about him. With a sigh, I moved my hand from his shoulder and gently touched my fingertips to his forehead. I accessed his memory, pouring his entire life into my own mind, and I could not believe what I was seeing.

          The memories flashed by so fast, but I saw everything and I felt everything—the loss of his mother, his father, his brother, his friends. I saw through Dean’s memories what Castiel had done, had been through. I saw every time Cas pulled them out of the fire, and the times he even threw the boys into a couple fires. I saw several changes in Cas that I couldn’t completely understand without hearing Castiel’s side of the story. I felt every wound, every emotion, every fear Dean felt. I felt every hurt, every sadness, and every angry moment. I saw every battle he and his brother had together. I saw every fight they’d had with each other. I heard every hurtful word they said. I saw them lose each other. I saw them come back together. I saw what they had defeated and overcome, and I saw what they had succumbed to and lost.

          I saw why Dean took on the Mark of Cain; it was basically a suicide attempt. To Dean, it was a chance to do a last act of good with a life he barely wanted anymore, because the Mark gave him the ability to kill Abbadon. I saw the turmoil it had put him through. I saw every kill he made as a demon. I saw the pain he caused. I heard the screams of pain and fear from men and women who had encountered the demon version of Dean. I saw the way Dean blamed himself for all of it. He blamed himself for every loss, even things out of his control—things that he had no possible way of controlling. He even blamed himself for the bad choices others made! Choices that Dean had nothing to do with. Like Castiel’s decision to stay in purgatory.

          All this flew through my mind in a split second. When it was done, there were tears in my eyes, and I was panting and holding my hand over my mouth so I wouldn’t scream out in agony for the suffering and pain Dean and Sam had seen in their short lives. No human should have to endure such a vast amount of pain and loss. They were never supposed to! Angels were created to protect them from such suffering! Where the hell had my brothers and sisters been? I thought back to Dean’s memories and saw the massive, traitorous mistakes the archangels had made, mistakes that made them no different than Lucifer!

          I started crying heavily. I tried to control myself so I wouldn’t wake Dean up, but holding my breath so I wouldn’t sob too loudly was making my chest and shoulders shake badly. I tried to breathe, but my breath came in rapid, inward sobs. I looked down at Dean’s sleeping face again and I couldn’t stand it. I carefully slid myself down so I was lying next to him, and I wrapped him up so close and so tightly in my arms that my tears were falling in his hair. He sighed and readjusted his position again to hold me tightly in return.

          I looked out the bedroom window toward the night sky. I knew every angel’s eyes were on me, fearful of losing me now that they’d found me, and I whispered fiercely through my tears. “What have you done? All of you. What have you _done?!_ ” I was trembling and really tried to rein it in so I wouldn’t wake Dean. I swallowed a few times, trying to calm down as I felt him breathe against me. “If any of you, _any_ of you come near Castiel, or Sam and Dean Winchester again, you do not understand how quickly and how furiously I will come down on your head. I will kill you and anyone following you. You know I can do it, too.”

          I gave Heaven one last warning glare before I closed my eyes and held Dean tightly. He needed help. Castiel could take care of Sam and Dean from the outside, but the vast amount of Dean’s damage was internal. I might be able to help him with it, assuming he was even willing to listen to me when he woke up. He might though…he might.

          I watched the night wane away as I thought about how to help Dean. I could try something. I _had_ to try something.

 

 

 

 

To Be Continued in...

Episode Two - Beauty and the Warrior


	2. Episode Two - Beauty and the Warrior

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean is no longer a demon, but the shame and guilt of it still haunts him. Celeste offers him some perspective from an immortal’s point of view on how to cope with the darkness he deals with. Castiel stumbles upon a new threat that will certainly get Celeste killed. Celeste shares her own past trials with Castiel and the Winchesters, including a failed attempt at rescuing Sam from Hell, but a successful attempt at rescuing Adam.

Part One: Joy Ride

_Celeste_

          Dean was not one to want to be caught being vulnerable or needy—and I was pretty sure the way he was holding onto me would fall into that category. So I carefully got out of the bed before he woke up.

          I went down two doors to Castiel’s room and knocked. “Cas? Are you awake?” I called gently. I didn’t want to wake him if he was still asleep.

          “Yes.”

          I pushed open his door. He was standing in a pair of jeans, holding a shirt in his hands. He was still wet from his shower. I actually flinched at seeing him like that; he had a really attractive human vessel. Feeling dirty for the thought, I shook my head and blinked a few times to make sure I could see my brother’s angelic face as he walked up to me, not his vessel’s.

          “Ahem. Listen, the boys are going to be hungry when they get up. Since I don’t eat, I don’t have food here; well, nothing really edible. I just have what I need to keep up appearances for visitors. Would you mind running and getting some supplies?”

          “Of course.”

          I almost left but stopped myself, pushing open his door again and giving him a playful suspicious look. “Drive. Don’t fly.” Castiel smiled brightly at me, which made me smile back. “I like my low profile here. Don’t need my big brother flying around all over the place.”

          “I’ll take the Impala.”

          “Uh, bad idea. Dean will be awake soon.”

          “Ah yes. Do you have a car?”

          “Truck. Keys are on the hook next to the front door.”

          He nodded and I smiled at him. I was about to leave his room when he said my name. “We need to talk,” he said, looking slightly unhappy.

          I nodded. “I know. We’ll catch up later.”

          “Not just catch up. We need to talk.”

          I didn’t like the sound of that. “Okay,” I said, not shielding my concern. “Can it wait?”

          Cas smiled a little which put me at ease. “Later is fine.”

          I smiled as well, and left the room. I went down to my basement in the laundry room and pulled out some clothes from the dryer. As I folded them up, I heard Castiel fire up my truck and pull away. I threw on a pair of jeans and a white tank top and an open pink flannel shirt. I had to exercise my horses and tend to my barn. I grabbed the laundry basket of folded clothes and headed back up the stairs. Placing it on my couch, I went past the stairs into my first floor bathroom. I splashed some water on my face to freshen up a bit and then tied my brown hair up in a ponytail with a single white satin ribbon.

          As I left the bathroom, Dean was coming down the stairs. We both froze in our tracks and looked at each other. “Hey,” I said after a moment.

          “Hey,” he replied. His eyes went to the floor as he continued to make his way down.

          My heart was breaking for this man. “Castiel just went to go get you guys some food and supplies. He should be back in about an hour.”

          “Thanks,” he said with a forced smile and then looked away again. “Where’s Sam?”

          “Still sleeping.”

          Dean nodded and took a seat on one of the tall stools at my counter. He folded his hands and just looked down at them. I waited.

          “Listen I, uh,” he began and looked over at me to try and meet my eyes. He managed to do it for a split second before he looked back down. “I know…” He paused, cleared his throat and then forced himself to meet my eyes at last. “I know what you were willing to do to cure me.”

          “You mean what I _did_ to cure you?” I said with a smile. “Dying?”

          “Yeah.”

          “What about it?”

          He looked at me with narrowed eyes, and I wasn’t sure if it was confusion or suspicion I saw. I wouldn’t blame him for either. “Why?”

          I sighed. His first reaction was “Why?” not “Thank you.” I shook my head, walked around behind him to the shelf next to my front door, and grabbed my cowgirl hat. This kind of talk wasn’t going to get me anywhere with him. “Listen, I need to take my horses out for a run. Do you want to come?” I looked at him over my shoulder.

          “What?” he asked, confusion all over his face.

          I put my hat on. “Do you want to come?” I took my vessel’s husband’s old cowboy hat off the shelf and faced him.

          “Uh, no thanks,” he said, scratching his eyebrow with his thumb. “Horse riding really isn’t my thing.” He forced a smile.

          I grinned at him. “That’s exactly why I think you should come.”

          “I’m sorry?”

          I gently tossed the men’s cowboy hat on the counter in front of him. “Come on.”

          Dean looked at the hat and studied me for a minute. It looked like he was trying to decide if I was joking or not. Seeing what I saw in his memories, and knowing the opinion he had of himself, it was more likely he couldn’t believe I was being friendly and kind to him since he’d been a Knight of Hell no more than twelve hours ago and his cure had killed me. He also had a deep-rooted distrust for angels. I couldn’t blame him after what my idiot siblings had done to him and Sam in the past. Hopefully, my dying to cure him would warm Dean up to me a little, enough to let me try to help him.

          He glanced down at the cowboy hat again before meeting my eyes. “I’m not wearing that.”

          I couldn’t help the wide, silly grin that came to my face. “Yes you are,” I said as I walked behind him through my living room to stand beside my side door.

          “No, I’m actually not,” he said and stood.

          I nodded at him, still grinning. “But you are.”

          That finally got a smile out of him, but he looked down immediately. With a small glance up at me, he finally put the cowboy hat on and walked towards the door. I pulled it open, grinning like a fool, and we both headed out towards my barn.

          It was awkwardly quiet, but I didn’t let that get to me. Helping fix Dean’s internal damage was going to get uncomfortable, and I was okay with that. I felt more ready for it than I probably had a right to be.

          The sky was a bright, cloudless blue, and there was a soft breeze blowing. I could hear the bubbling of the stream nearby. The wind blew gently, making the tall grass of the meadow sway back and forth. I took a deep, deep breath. This was the way to live.

          I looked over my shoulder at Dean and saw his head was down, his eyes on the ground in front of him and his hands in his pockets. All this beauty surrounding him, and he couldn’t even look at it. I managed to smile at myself, though, because his actions right now confirmed that what I was going to say to him was going to be the right thing. It was up to him whether he took me up on my advice, but only time would reveal that.

          I pulled open my barn doors and headed right to my two horses. “Hey babies. Hey, hey!” I said, greeting them with pets and kisses on their heads. Dean stood a few feet away from the stalls, not getting too close. One of my horses was a black and white Holstein. The other was an Anglo-Arab with a tan coat and white mane. Beautiful horses, but used for my own leisure, not working horses. I didn’t need working horses.

          “This,” I said petting my black and white, “is Thunder—named so because he’s a badass.” Dean grinned but looked down again as if he didn’t want me to think he was actually enjoying himself. It only made me smile wider. I went to my tan and white. “And this is Lolli—short for Lollipop because she’s so sweet.” I kissed her nose and fawned over her for a second.

          “I’m not riding Lollipop,” Dean said out of the blue.

          I threw my head back and laughed. He made a joke! (I’m not sure anything could be more emasculating than riding a horse named Lollipop.) I looked back at Dean and saw him smiling. Progress already, and we hadn’t even saddled the horses yet. I nodded to myself. This was going to work if it was given time.

          “Let me make this a bit quicker so we can get going.” I used angelic speed to saddle my horses. In a split second, Dean went from looking at two bareback horses to two fully saddled ones. I opened Thunder’s stall and led him out, handing the reins to Dean.

          “You know that I have no idea how to do this, right?”

          I touched his forehead and gave him ten years worth of riding lessons in a second. He met my eyes again, looking surprised. “Now you do,” I said with a smile. I opened Lolli’s stall and led her out. I mounted her and Dean mounted Thunder.

          “Where are we going?” Dean asked.

          “A beautiful place,” I responded with a smile. I spurred Lolli forward through the barn doors with Dean following behind. I led him to the right and began to ride through the tall grass meadow along the left side of the stream.

 

 Part Two: A New Threat

_Castiel_

          I wasn’t sure what foods the boys liked besides pie and fast food. Home cooked foods were a mystery. They so rarely had opportunities for them. Frozen burritos always worked. I grabbed some of them. Cheeseburgers worked well too. I wondered where the ground beef was. And onions! That’s right. Extra onions. I was actually enjoying shopping. It was quite relaxing, until I heard a thump beside me.

          I looked toward the sound, and my eyes went wide. “Maliah!” I quickly rushed to her side. She was an angel I knew from a long time ago, and she was bleeding badly from her stomach.

          “Castiel…” she gasped, “Celeste…she’s in danger.”

          “What? What do you mean?” I asked, applying pressure to the wound.

          “Astol,” she gasped, “she’s angry.”

          I lit up my hands with healing magic and waited a moment, but the wound wouldn’t heal. I met her eyes. “What…?”

          “I was stabbed with quicksilver…” she gasped, her eyes already becoming heavy. “It won’t heal.”

          My concern went through the ceiling. “Who has a quicksilver weapon?”

          “Astol. Please, listen to me. Astol…was in a rant…‘Did you hear her? Did you hear what she said?’”

          “What? What are you talking about?” I asked.

          “Celeste…she threatened all of Heaven last night.”

          My eyes went wide.

          “I tried to tell Astol…I tried to tell her that Celeste was right. We’d lost…the purpose of our creation as angels. Protect the humans. Celeste called us all on it. We’ve lost our focus. We’ve lost the purpose of our mission, our very creation…to protect the humans. It was millenniums before…any of us were even on earth before the fall. After the fall…what did we do besides fight amongst each other? We have to protect the humans.” She gasped in a few breaths. “Cel knows that...”

          I took Maliah’s face in my hands, my desperation making me impatient. “How is Cel in danger?”

          “Astol…she was angry that….most of us agreed with Celeste. She asked why Celeste suddenly got to call the shots? I said…I said it was because she apprenticed under Michael. Astol accused Celeste of burying her head in the sand and hiding. Astol…said…‘No. I refuse to take orders from a renegade angel. She doesn’t care about us. Michael cared about us! Michael cared about our Father and His will. Celeste only cares about herself, Castiel, and the Winchesters!’”

          My worry for Celeste settled like a heavy rock in my stomach. What had I brought on my sister? “What is Astol going to do?”

          “I…begged her to stop. I…told her that we had fought against each other enough. That it needed to end and…that Cel could unite us.” Maliah looked into my eyes with utter terror. “Astol said, ‘Michael is the only one that can unite us.’”

          My eyes went wide. She couldn’t mean…

          Maliah took a deep breath. “She’s going to get Michael out of the cage.”

          “No,” This was not happening. “He must be demonic by now! We can’t trust him! He’ll be another Lucifer, only more powerful!”

          Maliah nodded. “I know. Astol…said…‘He can fix this. He can put everything back…the way it was. He can kill Celeste…’”

          Her eyes went half closed and her body started to go still. I shook her shoulders. “Maliah!”

          She couldn’t lift her eyes. “‘If you’re not with me and Michael, you’re with her…’ She stabbed me. I came…to warn…” Maliah’s eyes closed and her body went limp.

          I sighed and then gently laid her down on the floor, feeling weighed down. I knew I was going to regret exposing Celeste. Now she was being threatened in a way she couldn’t possibly win. Michael was undefeatable. He would kill her. I had to expose Celeste though. She was the only hope I’d had in curing Dean.

          I needed to think. I still had time. Astol still had to find a way to open that cage. The Winchesters had the keys, and they would die before giving those up, no matter what kind of torture Astol tried to use on them. Not to mention Astol would have to go through me and Celeste before getting near the Winchesters, and Celeste was far more powerful than Astol.

          I glanced around the store, which was luckily not busy, and flew around faster than the humans could see. I gathered the supplies I recognized and needed for the boys, then flew back into Celeste’s truck with an incredibly heavy heart. I was hoping Celeste would be able to unite Heaven, but I hadn’t even convinced her to return home yet and division was already beginning. I wondered if Heaven would ever get back to normal. With my head hanging low, I doubted it. It was a massive burden to feel.

 

 Part Three – Beauty

_Celeste_

          I led Dean fifteen minutes upstream until we came to a half-mile wide cove in the tree line that had the most colorful array of wild flowers in the entire area. The cove was right next to the wide rushing stream where I let the horses drink. I dismounted, watching the water curve out from behind the foothills that stood in front of the mountains and then rush right by us. I crouched down, looking at the world around me. I dipped my hands in the water just to touch it and rubbed my wet hands together.

          “At sunset,” I told Dean without looking away from the landscape before me, “you can see the most beautiful orange, pink, and gold in the sky right there.” I nodded my chin towards the horizon just between the tree line and the side of the foothills.

          Dean stayed silent. I looked back at him and saw him looking at the ground again with an odd look in his face, as if he was purposely straining to keep his eyes off of the beautiful landscape around him. He casually kicked at the ground and pushed his toes into it just to give himself something to look at besides his surroundings.

          I straightened and walked over to him. “Walk with me,” I said, bumping my shoulder gently into his. He fell in step beside me as we headed into the cove of colorful wild flowers. I began to casually pick some blue flax flowers and a few white shasta daisies as we walked slowly along. “Dean, what's the most beautiful memory you have?”

          He looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “Beautiful memory?”

          I nodded.

          He looked away, shaking his head. “I don’t have one,” he answered too quickly. He had one. He just didn’t want to think about it, like he didn’t want to look at a beautiful landscape. “There’s nothing beautiful about this gig, just endless evil. Something I don’t expect you to understand. You’re too busy enjoying sunsets,” he said with a fake smile, barely trying to soften the biting accusation.

          I nodded. There was my opening.

          “Dean, how old are you?”

          “36. Why?”

          “And you’ve been a hunter in training since you were what, four years old?”

          He didn’t answer for a moment, probably thinking about his mom’s death. “Yeah about there,” he replied with no emotion.

          I stepped in front of him, stopping him, and looked in his eyes for a moment. “You’re a warrior, Dean. There’s no doubt about that. But so am I. I have seen the same darkness and the same evil and the same ugliness that you have, but I’ve dealt with it for about 6,000 years longer than you.”

          Dean glanced away.

          I moved my face into his line of sight and he met my eyes. “So don’t judge me for taking a couple years off to enjoy something beautiful, like this place.” He sighed heavily and looked away again. I turned and started walking, bending to pick a few tall purple heather stems. “Enjoying my time here is how I balance out the ugliness of war. It’s also something I know for a fact every warrior needs to do.” I looked over my shoulder at him. “And it’s something you fail to do.” He looked at me, his eyes narrowing, clearly offended. “It’s the main reason why I’ve kept my sanity, while you barely hold it together.”

          He shook his head and started to walk away. “I don't need this.”

          I appeared in front of him, stopping him in his tracks. “Oh yes you do.”

          He glared at me. “I don’t need a lecture! Hell yes, I’ve made mistakes. Too many to count, and I feel like crap about all of them! I have…”

          “I’m not lecturing you,” I said calmly. “I'm telling you how to keep your sanity, how warriors keep their sanity in war—sanity that you’ve lost a time or two.”

          “Oh yeah?” he said with false amusement. “And what are you going to do? Wave an angelic magic wand and fix me? Thanks but no thanks.”

          I narrowed my eyes at him. “Too bad, you’re going to hear this anyway.” He glared right back at me. “I can be just as stubborn as you, Dean, probably more so.” He shook his head and turned and walked away from me again. I stayed beside him, making sure he couldn’t ignore me. “The reason you keep finding yourself in these horribly dark places and messes is because you avoid anything beautiful, at any cost.”

          He stopped walking and looked at me like I was an idiot. “Wow, thanks for that. But in case you haven’t noticed, it’s war. There is _nothing_ beautiful about it.”

          I took a step toward him. “Then why have I been able to keep it together for a 6,000-year existence, and you can barely keep it together for 36?”

          He looked stumped for a moment before grasping at straws. “Because you’re an angel,” he finally said. “You don’t have a soul. You don’t feel the evil the same way humans do.”

          That stung more than it really should have. I glared at him. “I may not have a soul, but I do feel evil like you do. If I didn’t feel the weight, the horror, and the ugliness of battle, why would I need to take a break from it by hiding out here? How could I even appreciate the beauty of this area if I couldn’t _see_ beauty in the first place? I see and feel beauty and ugliness, but the difference between you and me is that I purposely seek out beauty to remind myself that it exists in the world. You do the opposite and avoid it.”

          Dean’s face relaxed in slight surprise as that statement seemed to flip a small switch in him. It was exactly what I was going for. I started walking and picking flowers again, adding some yellow sow thistles to the small bouquet I was collecting.

          “Okay, I get that,” Dean said. I looked back at him. He sighed and came towards me. “But every time I even _think_  to look at an upside, or a stroke of good luck, or…try to hope…” He met my eyes with such intensity and conviction I could have fallen over from the pressure. “The other shoe _always_ drops. If it can go wrong, I guarantee it does _._ ”

          I bent down to pick a few pink fireweed flowers before meeting his eyes again. “So your solution is to avoid beautiful things because they can be taken away? Something could go wrong, or you lose it?”

          “Yeah,” he said with confidence.

          I took a step towards him and looked at him sympathetically. “Here’s the problem with that, Dean. I know the line of work you’re in. I know how dark and ugly and evil it gets; most of all, I know how endless it can be. I’ve fought wars that lasted 150 years. Talk about endless.” Dean actually smiled a little. “But if all you see is darkness for that length of time, you eventually forget what you’re fighting for.” Dean’s jaw relaxed and the intensity in his eyes softened with intrigue. “That’s why it is so vitally important for warriors, like you and me, to purposely seek out beauty when we can. We need to remember beautiful things, not because we’re weak and can’t handle darkness, but because we need to be reminded of what we’re fighting for. There is no point in fighting darkness without beauty.”

          Dean’s face brightened a little with realization. I went on quietly picking some flowers. There was the nerve I was aiming for, the place in him I meant to hit.

          “You know,” he said from behind me, “that actually makes sense.”

          I grinned back at him. “I’m not just a pretty face, Dean. I’ve been around a while. I know my stuff.”

          He bowed his head and walked toward me. “I just…I don’t want to invest in good things because”—he shook his head—“I’ve lost too many good things, good people," he looked at me a little embarrassed, "beautiful people.”

          I nodded sympathetically and faced him. “I know you have. But if you’re going to keep doing this job and stay sane and lucid while doing it, you have to purposely start seeking out beauty; otherwise you forget the reason you’re fighting darkness at all. Why fight darkness when there is nothing beautiful and lovely and pure and good to save? In that endless darkness, how do you remember that there is beauty if you don’t go looking for it? Or if you make a habit of avoiding it like you have?”

          He shook his head a little. “I hear you. I do. But that’s a lot easier said than done. I know what massive loss feels like.” He shook his head, and I saw his eyes gloss over a little. “And I don’t know if I can invest in anything good anymore.”

          I took a step towards him. “Let me tell you a little secret about beautiful things from an immortal’s perspective; what makes beautiful things so beautiful is their fragility.” He looked confused. “It’s the inevitable loss or destruction of them. If beautiful things were permanent”—I smiled at him—“there would be no reason to appreciate them so much. The trick that I have mastered, that you need to master, too, is to appreciate their beauty while you can. Knowing that they won’t last, understanding that their temporary state is what makes them even more beautiful, should make you appreciate them all that much more.”

          Dean swallowed heavily as that seemed to sink in a little.

          I bent down and picked a few orange butterfly weed flowers and then got on one knee and arranged all the flowers into an attractive bouquet. “These flowers are going to die in the next three days or so.” I took the white satin ribbon out of my hair and tied it in a bow around the stems. Looking back up in Dean’s eyes, I stood and held out the bouquet to him. He stared at it for a long moment before meeting my eyes again and hesitantly taking the bouquet from me. “But that doesn’t make them any less beautiful right now.” I passed him and started walking back toward the horses.

          Dean was quiet for a moment before saying from behind me, “But if beauty is so temporary, why should anyone invest anything in it?”

          I turned to face him with a smile. “Because it’s beautiful.” I shrugged and headed toward the horses again.

          I figured I had given him enough to think about. The rest was up to him. If he actually took my advice it would make him an even fiercer fighter. If he began to notice and appreciate the good things, the beautiful things in the world and in his life, he would know what he was fighting for and have something to fight for. Avoiding beautiful things was not the answer. Beauty made fighting the ugliness not just tolerable, but worth it. But to do that, he had to make himself aware of the beautiful things in the world, not ignore or avoid them.

 

 Part Four – Pleasantries

_Castiel_

          Sam came down the stairs looking disheveled but very rested. “That smells good,” he said rubbing a hand over his face as he watched me cook breakfast. He sat at one of the high stools on the opposite side of the kitchen counter.

          “How did you sleep?” I asked.

          “You know what?” He huffed a short laugh. “Better than I have in a long time.”

          I smiled. “Good.”

          “How about you?” I looked at him as he smiled. “You have a soul now. How did you sleep?”

          “Uh, strangely enough, very well.”

          Sam nodded and then looked around. “Where are Dean and your friend?”

          “Celeste took Dean out for a horseback ride.”

          “Really?” Sam said skeptically. “Dean on a horse?” His brows went up. “Interesting.”

          I grinned at him.

          Sam looked around, focusing on something down the nearby hall. “Hey, I’m going to take a shower.” He stood. “I’ll be out in a bit.”

          I nodded and looked back at the onions I was sautéing. “Breakfast should be done by then.”

          Sam bounced his fist off the counter twice before heading down the hall to the bathroom.

          A few minutes later, I heard the galloping of hooves from outside. Leaning back from the stove, I looked out Celeste’s living room windows and saw her and Dean coming out of the meadow towards the house. They turned their horses right and headed out of sight towards the barn. I smiled at the brief glimpse of Dean. He looked, I dared to think, a little lighter.

          My smile quickly faded into a sigh though, as I went back to cooking. I thought about my trip to the store and what Maliah had died to warn me about. Cel and I had a lot to discuss. Sam and Dean had earthly work to do; she and I had Heavenly work to do. This discussion was not going to be pleasant. Some things I needed to talk to her about were going to upset her, but I had no choice.

          Dean and Celeste were out in the barn for a while longer, long enough for breakfast to be done and for Sam to get out of the shower and get dressed. He was already sitting at the counter when Dean and Cel came through the side door and into the house.

          “What smells so good?” Celeste asked. Seeing me at the stove, she stopped in her tracks and looked at me with wide eyes. “Cas did you…” Her brows dropped and her eyes narrowed with playful skepticism. “Did you cook?”

          “Breakfast,” I said and put a plate in front of Sam and two more plates at the empty seats beside him. “Ham and sausage,” I paused, uncertain of the term, “omelets? Correct?”

          Celeste grinned as she continued towards the kitchen. “Thanks, but I don’t eat, remember?”

          “That one is actually for me.”

          Cel threw her head back and laughed as she pulled off her hat and working gloves and tossed them on the floor. “So you’re eating too, huh?”

          “I’m starving,” I replied honestly. My stomach was eating itself from how hungry I was.

          She chuckled. “All right, go on,” she said, shooting her thumb towards the counter where my food was waiting. “I’ll clean this up.”

          I happily, and rather quickly, went on the other side of the counter to eat. Dean sat next to Sam and I sat on the other side of Dean.

          Dean looked over at me skeptically. “Do you even know how to cook?”

          I looked at him to reply, but my mouth was already full. Sam looked at Dean with his mouth full as well and nodded. “It’s good. It’s safe.”

          Dean looked at Sam dubiously. “Seriously?”

          Sam nodded enthusiastically and took another bite. “Dude, trust me.”

          Dean shot me one more look of skepticism before leaning over his plate. Cel watched all of us with a big grin on her face. Dean took a slow and careful bite. After a moment his brows went up. “Not bad, Cas.”

          Celeste chuckled as she cleaned up the pots and pans. The breakfast conversation stayed light and casual. Sam and I asked Dean and Cel where they were, and they told us about the flower meadow they had visited. I’d had angel radio on in my head while Cel was talking to Dean, and it seemed that what she’d said to him had had some sort of effect. I could already see a positive change in Dean as he talked about the meadow and the stream with the faintest hint of admiration, which was out of character for him.

          “You and I can fly there later Cas,” Celeste said. “I’ve got to show you.”

          Dean divulged that he had helped Cel in her barn for a little while after they had returned from their ride, which is what took them so long to come in. “I’ve never broken a sweat like that; well, not without running for my life.” That made us all chuckle. “I want a barn.”

          Sam laughed, “Farmer Dean. I can see it.”

          “Shut up,” Dean said throwing a balled-up napkin at his brother’s face. All of us burst into laughter, Sam with a slight teary glaze in his eyes. His brother was back, and he could barely contain his joy over it.

          A few minutes passed and Celeste finished cleaning up the pots and pans. “All right, I’m going to hop in the shower,” she said, closing the dishwasher. “Dean, if you finish eating before I get out, you can use the bathroom upstairs to clean up.”

          Dean nodded and Celeste started to head down the hall to the downstairs bathroom.

          “Celeste,” Sam said, standing from his stool. He then stepped up and wrapped her tightly in his arms. Shocked from the gesture, Celeste took a second to hug him in return. “Thank you for giving me my brother back,” he said in a shaky voice.

          Dean looked down at his plate with a faint smile.

          Celeste held Sam for a moment before pulling away with a smile. “You’re welcome.”

          “I mean it,” Sam said, swallowing heavily. “Thank you.”

          Celeste smiled bigger and gently pat his cheek. “I was happy I could do it, Sam.”

          As she walked away, Sam sat back down and I caught the smallest hint of longing in Dean’s expression as he looked after her until she disappeared into the bathroom. I couldn’t help the big grin that came to my face and quickly took another bite of food to hide it.

          “Cas, you’ve got an awesome sister there,” Sam said.

          “Yeah. Where’s she been?” Dean asked.

          I shrugged. “I’m not sure. I’m planning on finding out when she comes back. She and I have a lot to discuss.”

          “She said the last time you two saw each other was when you rescued me from Hell.”

          I nodded. “That’s true.”

          “What happened?” Dean asked.

          I looked at him. “With what? Your rescue or our separation?”

          “Both.” Dean looked at me in confusion and disbelief. “Twelve angels _died_ to get me out of there?”

          I nodded. I’d been hoping the conversation wouldn’t take this dark turn.

          Dean swallowed heavily. “Who survived? Besides you and Celeste.”

          I repressed a sigh. Apparently there was nothing I could do about the turn in the conversation. “Ezekiel and Jonah also survived. Both of them were killed in the fall, though.”

          “Wait a minute,” Sam said. “The fall. How can Celeste still have her wings? Didn’t she fall too?”

          I shook my head uncertainly. “She had to have already been on earth, in her vessel, when the fall happened.”

          “So you don’t know?” Dean asked.

          “Like she said, the last time we saw each other was just after we pulled you out of Hell. After that, she was forced to apprentice under Michael and I didn’t see her again until yesterday.”

          “Forced?” Dean asked, his voice tense. He was being protective of my sister and it was all I could do not to grin. “Someone _forced_ her to apprentice under Michael?”

          I nodded. “Michael did. He chose her himself." I looked down at my plate. "He, quite literally, ripped Celeste away from the rest of us.” I looked back up at Sam and Dean expecting to see them bored and uninterested, but their jaws were clenched and their eyes were intense. I put my fork down and crossed my arms on the countertop. I looked down at my plate again, having lost my large appetite for the moment. “She was walking right next to me when they came to get her.” I met their eyes. “I can still hear her screams. I can still see the look on her face, the way she reached for me, begging me to help her, and I couldn’t do anything.” My jaw clenched and I shook my head, looking down at my fork as I picked it up again. “I didn’t realize it then, but that was the moment my distrust of the archangels began.” I stabbed at a piece of egg. “But I was too caught up in being a good, obedient soldier.” I shook my head again. “I didn’t know what free will was yet.”

          I glanced at them and saw Dean shake his head and look at Sam. “I seriously hate that guy.”

          Sam nodded. “You and me both.”

          “Listen Cas,” Dean said looking back at me, “when you and Celeste decide to catch up, we need to be there.”

          Sam nodded at me. “Definitely.”

          I nodded. “You should probably be brought up to speed anyway.”

          We finished breakfast quietly and Dean headed to the upstairs bathroom to clean up. A few minutes later, Celeste came out of the downstairs bathroom looking clean and refreshed.

          I smiled at her as she sat at the counter between me and Sam. “You know you don’t _actually_ have to shower, right?” I teased, not wanting her to know what I’d just revealed about her.

          She shrugged. “I know. I just like to. It’s relaxing.” She plucked a fried potato off my plate and popped it into her mouth. Her immediate expression of disgust made me and Sam laugh. She quickly grabbed a napkin and spit it out. “Ugh. All I can taste is the dirt and fertilizer it was grown in.” As Sam and I collected ourselves she smiled at us. “Dean cleaning up?”

          “Yeah,” Sam responded, wiping his eyes and still chuckling.

          “Good. Come on, Cas.” She stood up and went to her couch and sat down. “Let’s have that talk you need so badly.”

          “Actually,” Sam said, turning the stool around towards her, “if it’s all right, Dean and I think we should sit in for this.”

          Celeste shrugged. “I don’t see why not. Come on, Sam.” She tossed a pillow onto one of the chairs across from the couch. “Have a seat. Get comfy, because it’s a long story.”

 

Part Five – Playing Catch Up

_Celeste_

          When Castiel finished his tale, I was left shaking my head in awe and bewilderment. “Yeah, the fact that you have a soul makes sense now.”

          “Think so?”

          “Cas, after what you’ve _been_ through?” I nodded confidently. “Yeah, it makes sense! Rebelling against Heaven? Betraying the boys you’d become such good friends with? The civil war you waged against Raphael? Raphael!? Then emptying out purgatory? Trying to play Dad and failing? The humans and angels you killed? Holy Moses, big brother! The regret and weight of that alone! Not to mention the several times you’ve died! Then memory loss? Seriously? And taking on Sam’s cage match scars! Spending a year in purgatory?! Purgatory!? Then Naomi’s mind control. Immediately after that, being betrayed by”—I had to close my eyes and take a breath—“Metatron.” I was so angry at my stupid, traitorous brothers and sisters that I was shaking. “The betrayal that led to the fall.” I shook my head. “He preyed on your noble desire to try and fix Heaven.” I looked at Castiel’s somber face. “I hate douchebags that do that.” It was lucky Metatron wasn’t in front of me right then, or I would have slit his throat. Castiel was a better angel than me for keeping that son of a bitch alive in prison. “Then you spent time as homeless, starving, desperate human? Then tortured by Malachi? Killing Theo for his grace, which was burning out and slowly killing you anyway?” I shook my head again, looking away and rubbing my hand over my face, as if that would wake me up from this nightmare that had become my brother’s life over the past five years. I nodded and met Cas’ eyes. “Yeah, I see why you have a soul borne of suffering now.” I narrowed my eyes. “But what in the name of Heaven happened to your human vessel’s soul?”

          Cas shook his head. “I have no idea. I haven’t felt him in here in years.”

          “He’d have to be dead, right?”

          “I don’t know.”

          I shook my head again. “So weird.” I rubbed my hand over my face once more. My mind was reeling from this. I stood up and went to my kitchen and into the fridge. I grabbed four beers. I didn’t normally drink, but this was a drinking day. I tossed one to each of the boys and sat back down on the couch next to Castiel.

          The hiss and click of the beers opening was the only sound that could be heard for a moment while I tried to wrap my head around this insanity. I knew I was next to spill my guts, and I tried to line up Castiel’s timeline of events with my own. The truth was I knew a little bit of what Cas had done in Heaven. Ezekiel, my very good friend and brother, had kept me informed. But his intelligence was sparse at best.

          “Well?” Dean said from the chair next to Sam’s. “Where were _you_ during all this?” He lifted the beer to his lips. There was a hint of accusation in his voice that irritated me.

          I narrowed my eyes at him. “Trying to get Sam out of Hell,” I said, and Dean almost choked on his beer. “That okay with you?”

          Dean lowered the bottle and looked at me in disbelief.

          “The first thing I did with my free will, after Michael went into that cage, was to try to get your brother out. So how about you don’t talk to me like I’m some villain.”

          Dean’s throat bobbed up and down in a deep swallow as he looked at me, genuinely wounded for the first time all day. “I’m sorry.”

          I resisted the urge to flinch at the apology and looked at Cas, whose eyes were wide. “I _saw_ you down there!” he said.

          I looked at him, confused. “You saw me?”

          “I was down there to get Sam, too. I didn’t know it was you, though. I just saw an angel in the distance leaving—with Adam, I thought.”

          It was Sam’s turn to choke on his beer. “Wait. What? Adam? Our brother?”

          I looked at Sam playfully, like he was a moron. “Do you know any other Adams that went into that cage with you, Michael, and Lucifer?”

          Dean looked between me and Sam. “Wait. You…you got Adam out?” he asked.

          “Yes I did. Barely.”

          The boys looked at each other and then back at me again. “You’re serious? You got Adam out of that cage?” Sam asked.

          “Yes,” I said a little impatiently. How many times did I have to say it? I swallowed heavily then and shook my head a little, looking away from the boys. This was not an easy story for me to tell, and even worse to try to relive in order to tell it. I met Sam’s eyes. “I went down there to get you, but…” Tears sprung up unbidden. I paused and had to look away again. I hadn’t cried as much in my 6,000-year existence as I had in the past day. I cleared my throat and tried to compose myself. It took me a minute. I blew out a breath and finally looked at Sam again. “With Michael in the cage, I was supposed to take over the command of Heaven. I was the only one who could. I had been apprenticing under him since Cas and I got Dean out of Hell. Apparently my performance in that battle and rescue earned me the apprenticeship and the promotion to archangel. Only archangels can lead Heaven. So imagine the surprise of my brothers and sisters, particularly the pleasant surprise of Raphael when, as soon as that portal closed, I dive-bombed down to earth, then into Hell, to rescue you.”

          I looked down and pressed my thumb and index finger into my eyes as I tried to gather my strength and courage to tell this story. I cleared my throat again while the boys waited patiently. I met Sam’s eyes. He was the only one I could look at because I had to see that he was okay as I tried to relive the horror I’d witnessed done to him down there.

          “I went to Hell and stealthily made my way to the cage without being found or followed. And I waited.” I looked up towards the ceiling, as if gravity might help me keep my tears in, but they slipped out and slid down my cheeks anyway. “I waited for about two weeks.”

          “Two weeks?” Sam asked.

          I kept my eyes on the ceiling as I nodded. “I couldn’t get to you, though.” I swallowed heavily. “Michael and Lucifer wouldn’t let up on you.” I glanced at Sam and saw him look down at the floor. My eyes went back up to the ceiling. “For a year after I left that place”—I nearly choked on my words and my voice went down to a strained whisper—“I could still hear you screaming in pain.”

          My tears dripped off my chin like rainwater, and I couldn’t keep up with wiping them. My sleeves were soaked. Castiel ended up going to the kitchen to bring me some paper towels. I wiped my eyes and took a few deep breaths to try to calm myself down. I finally looked at Sam again, reminding myself that he was okay now. He wasn’t in there with them anymore. He was safe. He wasn’t being hurt.

          I cleared my throat. “I would have waited longer, but Hell is hot and my wings started to burn up from being in the heat so long. I stayed as long as I possibly could.” I was losing it. I met his eyes with regret. “But my wings burned away too much to carry both our weight, and I couldn’t get you.” Tears spilled over again. “I am _so_ sorry.”

          Sam got up from his chair and came over to me. He crouched down and embraced me tightly while I shamelessly cried on his shoulder. I couldn’t begin to tell him how sorry I was that I had failed him. Words seemed pointless and useless. They would never, ever be enough to express how I felt at failing him so miserably.

          “Hey, hey listen,” Sam said sympathetically as he pulled away and looked me in the eyes. “It’s okay. Cas got me out. It was a little bit of a process, but it all worked out. And you got Adam out, right?”

          I nodded.

          “So it’s okay. My brother is not in the cage anymore. He was the last person that belonged in there. So everything is fine.” Sam smiled gently at me. He wiped my tears and actually kissed my forehead before he stood up. Then he kissed the top of my head before he went back to his chair across from me.

          His words gave me a little strength, at least enough to stop crying, but I would always have that failure hanging over my head. I wiped my eyes with my sleeves again and took a few deep breaths. “I was about to leave Hell when I happened to see Adam in the shadows in the corner of the cage.” I shook my head. “He was already mutilated beyond recognition, which is why I didn’t notice him at first. They‘d already done a number on him in the time it took me to get to the cage. He hadn’t even moved in the two weeks that I waited.” I glanced at Sam. “Michael and Lucifer were busy with you, so as soon as I saw him, I put a small hole in the bottom corner of the cage. I slipped in and was able to reach him. I quietly dragged him out, fixed the hole in the cage, and flew off. My wings were in really bad shape though, so it was slow going, and Michael saw me.”

          It was uncomfortably quiet for a moment as I thought back to that moment. The first hard choice I ever had to make in my existence.

          “That was the distraction I needed,” Castiel said suddenly, saving me from talking about it. All our eyes went to him. Cas sat up a little straighter, “When Michael and Lucifer turned to Celeste, I was able to grab Sam out; well, his body anyway. His soul was left behind in my hurry to get him.” He met my eyes. “I didn’t realize it until months later, after Dean noticed something wrong with Sam.”

          I recalled the memories I’d seen in Dean’s mind of Sam without a soul and how the Horsemen, Death, had given it back to him. I couldn’t help the small grin that came to my face in that moment when I glanced at Sam and Dean, because these two silly mortal human beings had softened an emotionless hard-ass, an old-as-God immortal like Death, and got him to do them a favor.

          What was it about these friggin’ Winchesters that just made massive, world-altering stuff like this happen? The derailing of the apocalypse. Death himself doing them a solid. It was completely mind blowing.

          “What’s so funny?” Dean asked in that accusing tone.

          I shook my head and finished wiping my tears. “Nothing.”

          “Then why are you smiling?”

          I sighed and rolled my eyes. The compassion I felt for this man last night was going out the window. I liked him a lot better when he was sleeping and couldn’t speak. “So smiling is a crime against humanity now, is that it?”

          “Considering what we’re talking about isn’t exactly a happy subject, I’m not sure what you find so hilarious.”

          “Dean,” Sam said, “Shut up.”

          “Oh, so the rescue of your two brothers from Hell isn’t a happy subject? Would you prefer it if I put them back in? I can, if you want me to. I’m sure Michael and Lucifer…”

          “All right,” Dean said.

          “…are bored out of their minds by now. They could use some entertainment down there if that’s…”

          “All right!” Dean cried. He met my eyes, annoyed, for a moment before he softened. “I’m sorry.”

          I glared at him. “You know, these apologies could be avoided if you would just shut the hell up for once in your life and listen to something else besides your own self-righteousness.”

          “We’re sorry,” Sam said quickly, trying to defuse the situation. “You’re right. Not listening is a common problem of my brother’s. Trust me. It’s not personal,” he said with a dash a humor. “He doesn’t listen to anybody.”

          I sighed and looked away from Dean at Sam.

          “Please. Continue.”

          I adjusted myself more comfortably on the couch, pulling my legs up Indian style and putting a pillow on my lap. “After I got Adam out”—I sighed again I shook my head before meeting their eyes—“Heaven was already in turmoil. Two weeks under Raphael, factions and rebellions were forming, and suicides were rampant as free will started to become a realization and no angel knew what to do with it. The apocalypse had been avoided, the big ending to all things; Dad was gone, Michael was gone and I was M.I.A.” I shook my head. “Raphael made quick work of becoming top dog in Heaven by making it very clear that he was going to put the apocalypse back on the rails again. That calmed everyone down and gained him a lot of loyalty because that’s what was _supposed_ to happen, and what was _supposed_ to happen was the only language angels understood. After I returned, releasing Adam’s soul was the last thing I did before my big brother was on my ass like a fly on a carcass.”

          I shook my head again, not being really fond of this time in my existence, and guzzled the rest of my beer down. It had no effect on me, but I got up from the couch, went to the fridge, and grabbed another just because. I went back to the couch and drank half of it in one swallow. I closed my eyes and rested the cold bottle against my forehead. I took a few deep breaths before looking at the boys again. “I was the only threat to Raphael, he knew that, but I was weak and injured from the wait in Hell, so he had me put in Heaven’s prison immediately, with barely a struggle.”

          Cas’ eyes started to glow blue in rage. “He what?”

          I looked over at him and quickly reached over and took a firm hold of his hand. “It’s okay, Cas. It’s okay.” I smiled at him, though it was a little forced. “You already killed Raphael, remember? You can’t bring him back and kill him again, can you?”

         “I might try.”

          I grinned at him and patted his hand. “It’s okay,” I said, sitting back. “Ezekiel was my guard.”

          Cas calmed down instantly. “Oh.”

          “Wait,” Dean said, “Ezekiel? One of the angels that got me out of Hell? One that survived?”

          I nodded. “Ezekiel was fatally wounded during that rescue mission, but I refused to leave him down there, so I pulled him up with me and he was able to be healed once we got topside. Ezekiel wasn’t going to hurt me in prison after I saved his life, and he never did.” I looked at Castiel to get that point across. “He never did. In fact, he’s the one that healed me of my Hell exhaustion and burns.”

          Castiel sighed heavily and nodded. “Good.”

          I sighed before meeting the boy’s eyes again. “Heaven’s prison was where I stayed for the next three human years. The deepest, loneliest cell that could hold me, Raphael had prepared. Every day he would come down to ask me if I would follow him, if I would fly next to him as he united Heaven and destroyed the earth the way it was supposed to be destroyed in the apocalypse. Every day I told him to go screw himself.” I smiled at Castiel. “Getting the few sparse reports from Ezekiel of a strong rebellion, led by a certain brave and stupid older brother of mine, made it easier for me to tell Raphael to go screw himself.”

          Castiel looked at me with the saddest expression I’d ever seen on an angel’s face, the kind of expression that I was certain only an angel with a soul could pull off. “I am so sorry I couldn’t find you. I tried. I knew I would need your help against Raphael but…” He shook his head and looked away from me.

          “Hey, hey,” I said, taking his hand. He met my eyes again. “It’s okay.” I smiled at him. “Raphael made sure no one could find me. I wasn’t being hurt, and you had your hands full with him and these two clowns anyway,” I said, indicating the boys playfully. “It’s okay. I was okay.”

          He sighed. “You forgot to mention I was also busy trying to find purgatory,” he said flatly.

          He still felt the shame of that mistake and he needed to let it go. I shook my head, “You were doing the best you could with free will you were not familiar with yet. Consequences of our own actions were never something we had to concern ourselves with before Michael went into that cage. We just followed orders.”

          “I thought you just disappeared.” He sighed and shook his head. “And I hated you for it for a while.” I looked at him, trying to pretend that statement didn’t break my heart a little. “In fact, I think I hated you until the moment my eyes opened yesterday and I realized you had just scarified a pair of your wings for me.” He shook his head, “Knowing that you were locked up in Heaven”—his nostrils flared a little—“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I lost my faith in you.”

          I looked down at my lap. I tried to ease the sting of what he was saying. What made it bearable was the fact that I could relate to his loss of faith. I looked up and met his regretful eyes again. “We all lost our faith at some point over these last five years.” I shrugged. “How can I be mad at you for it, when I did too?” Cas tilted his head to the side sympathetically. “These last few years haven’t been easy on any of us. The crap we’ve seen and had to deal with are things we’ve never had to face before, like free will.”

          “Cel,” Sam said gently across the way. I wiped the single tear that leaked out as I looked over at him. “How did you get out of prison and end up here?”

          “Naomi.”

          “Naomi?” Cas asked.

          I nodded. “Ezekiel kept me informed about some things going on outside of prison. He told me that Raphael was dead—I kind of already knew because his daily visits had stopped—and that Naomi was starting to rise in power.” I smiled at Cas. “And apparently you were as much a thorn in Naomi’s side as you were in Raphael’s.”

          Castiel shook his head in annoyance and looked away.

          “After you broke her mind control and went missing, she came to visit me in my cell. She offered to let me out if I would help her hunt you down.” I scoffed and shook my head. “Little did she know that not only would she never shake my loyalty to you, but that I’d had it with Heaven’s chaos and its instability and its politics. I was beyond fed up with that place. I agreed, though, and asked her to help me find my true human vessel. I used the excuse that it was ‘just in case I needed to hunt for you on earth.’” I shrugged. “She bought it, and we went looking for my true vessel that could hold me and not burn up.” I held my hands out to my sides, indicting my human vessel. “Janice here was it. She and her husband lived in a tiny apartment in New York City. He was dying of leukemia. She let me occupy her and I immediately warded myself against every angel in Heaven, except I left a few Enochian sigils that would let you find me if you ever went looking for me.” I sighed and folded my hands in my lap. “I offered to heal Brian, but he refused. He said he wanted to go home. He did have a dying wish though, that his wife could get out from under the debt of the medical bills and move to the country, to a house with a barn, with either a view of mountains, or a stream, or a meadow.” I smiled. “So I miraculously took care of their medical bills with a little lottery win for them and moved them both to this place. He died here last year.” I met Castiel’s eyes. “The last thing he saw was the ‘meteor shower’ of our falling brothers and sisters.”

          It was quiet for a moment before Sam spoke. “That’s why you still have your wings,” he said, “because you were already on earth.”

          I nodded. “And I’ve been here since.”

          It was quiet again as we drank our beers and let everything sink in that was shared. I had most of the story, but I looked at Sam. “Sam?” He looked at me as he lowered the bottle from his lips. “Would it be all right if I looked at your memories?”

          He looked at me, confused. “My memories?”

          I nodded. “I looked at Dean’s last night, but that only gave me half of the Winchester story. I’d like to see the other half if it’s okay with you.”

          “Wait. You were in my head?” Dean asked.

          I nodded. “I was curious as to what kind of a man could stop something with the magnitude of the apocalypse. I got my answer.”

          “That’s great.” He shook his head and stood up from the chair, looking at me with almost disgust. “What is it with you angels and this need to invade my brain all the time?”

          I glared at him. “I had just cured your dumb ass of the Mark of Cain and died in the process. Excuse me if I wanted to know what, on God’s green earth, could have possessed a good man like you to agree to take on a demonic mark! I wanted to know if you were worth the effort of dying!”

          Dean’s face softened. I studied his expression and saw not only some hesitation, but also a mix of nerves and what I thought was even a little hope. “And…?” he asked.

          I kept looking at him, wondering about this strange mix of emotions on his face. “And what?”

          “Was saving me worth dying for?”

          My expression went lax in realization. He wanted me to say yes. That was the hope I was seeing. But the nerves I saw were him not being sure if I would say yes because he didn’t think he was worth my life or anyone else’s. Did I dare think he might actually believe me, even a little bit, if I said yes right now?

          I stood from the couch and looked up into his eyes. “Yes. It was.” I said firmly.

          His jaw was working furiously, and he nodded stiffly in acknowledgment. He didn’t vocalize the gratitude, but he didn’t outright scream that he wasn’t worthy either. Progress on day one, and it was just a little past noon. He didn’t want to fully believe he was worth dying for, but he didn’t fully deny it either like he always did.

          I looked down at Sam. “Would it be okay?” Sam nodded once and moved to stand. “It’s okay,” I said, stopping him, and rounded the coffee table. He sat back. “It’s better if you’re sitting and relaxed.” I reached my hand down and touched my fingertips to his forehead and opened up his memories to my mind.

          The same hardships and evil and turmoil poured into my brain like Dean’s had. The same losses, the same fear, same pain. I saw everything and I felt everything again, only from Sam’s perspective. I saw the changes he’d witnessed in Cas that I understood now. I felt every wound, every emotion, every fear Sam felt. I felt every hurt, every sadness, and every lonely moment. I saw again what they had defeated and overcome as brothers, and I saw what they had succumbed to and lost. All of it was done in a split second, and I was trembling and in tears again. I couldn’t stand this.

          Without another word, I ran, practically stumbling out my side door. I took a few steps towards the meadow before stopping and I tried to collect myself. These two humans. What they’d seen and been through and faced! I couldn’t. I collapsed to my knees and watched as my tears hit the ground. What was wrong with me? I never cried! Yet here I was, at it again for what—the third time in a single day?

          “Cel?”

          I looked back and saw Castiel coming out the door towards me. Sam and Dean stayed in the doorway, looking at me with concern.

          I shook my head and looked out toward the meadow. “I’ll be all right.”

          Castiel came and stood beside me, resting his hand on my shoulder.

          “You…” I tried to compose myself. “You’ve been with them…through most of this crap, haven’t you?”

          He was quiet a moment. “We’ve been through a lot together.”

          I nodded. “This sucks, you know that?” I said after a minute.

          “Yeah. I know.”

          He knew what I meant. The utter ridiculous failure of our brothers and sisters in every aspect of their existence since our Father left. The archangels, the cherubs, the seraphim, all of them, every single level of the celestial chain had failed at everything they had done since then. But something in Castiel’s tone made me look up at him.

          As soon as I saw his face my eyes went wide. “There’s something you’re not telling me.”

          Castiel stepped around to stand in front of me and held his hand out. I took it and he pulled me up. “How about you show me that meadow now?”

          I looked back at Sam and Dean. “It’s okay,” Sam said, nodding. “We’ll wait here.”

          I looked back at Cas and gripped his hand as we flew off. I had a feeling my life was about to get ugly again.

 

 

To be Continued in...

Episode Three - Back into the Fray


	3. Episode Three - Back into the Fray

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Castiel tells Celeste about the danger she's in with Astol threatening to release Michael and Lucifer from the cage in Hell. Cas asks if Celeste will retake the command of Heaven, but she blatantly refuses for reasons only Sam and Dean can get her to admit too. Then the Winchester's and Castiel aren't heard of for six months. Celeste believes they've moved on with their business without her, until she hears a desperate, strangled prayer from Castiel. Celeste leaves in a mad dash to search for him...only to find him warded from her. Dean and Sam are warded from her as well, and Cel knows that cannot be a good sign.

Part One: Ground Zero

_Celeste_

          Castiel’s look of admiration for my beautiful flower meadow was so endearing to see as we walked around for a little while. I was always shocked to see that look—peaceful—on my brother’s face. I didn’t see it very often. Castiel had been a rigid, by-the-letter soldier when we were “growing up.” He’d suffered no fools. But looking at him now as he gazed around at the beauty of this place with an innocence I’d perceived only a few times in our existence together, I saw the change in him; I saw the reality of his soul.

          Yet I knew that look he’d given me before we flew off to the meadow. Something was grievously wrong.

          After giving ourselves a while to enjoy the meadow, I shoved my hands deep in my pockets and looked at him. “My life is about to get ugly again, isn’t it?” Castiel turned to face me. “You’re about to throw me back into the fray, aren’t you?”

          His blue eyes got incredibly sad as he came toward me. “I need you to understand that it wasn’t my intention. None of this was.”

          I nodded. “I know, Cas.”

          “You were just the only hope I had left for curing Dean.”

          I nodded again and tried to put my heart and essence into warrior mode. “What’s going on?”

          Deep regret washed over his features. “You knew Maliah, correct?”

          “I know every angel.”

          “She’s dead.”

          I nodded. “What happened?”

          Cas took another step toward me. “You looked at Dean’s memories last night.” Oh crap. I had a feeling I knew where this was going. He turned his head to the side and peered at me. “Did you threaten all of Heaven last night?”

          Warrior mode was on. “Yeah, I did,” I said confidently.

          I refused to be ashamed of that fact, not after what I had seen in Dean’s memories of the archangel’s malice and screw-ups! I felt the warrior rage rising up as I thought about what Zachariah had done to the Winchesters. He’d tried to take away Sam and Dean’s most precious and unique gift…their free will. He’d tried every way he could think of, including some torture, to get Sam and Dean to say yes to becoming Michael and Lucifer’s vessels for the apocalypse to occur. My rage was sated, though, when I recalled Dean stabbing Zac in the face. A few months prior, Dean had threatened to do exactly that, and Zac had pretty much laughed at him.

          “You made some angels angry,” Cas said.

          I looked him dead in the eyes and took a step towards him. “Look at my face,” I said, a little more dangerously than I intended. It wasn’t Cas I was mad at; it was pretty much everyone else. “Do I look like I care? Do I look scared or intimidated to you, Castiel?”

          “No. You look righteously angry.”

          “I told them to stay away from you and the Winchesters or I would kill them.” I shrugged. “As long as they leave you all alone, we don’t have a problem.”

          “You may see it that way, but they see it as a betrayal. “ Cas shook his head. “Not all of them of course, just some.”

          “Again, you’re telling me like I should be worried or something.”

          “You should be,” Castiel said calmly, too calmly. I didn’t like his confidence in the other angels’ ability to defeat me—or maybe I didn’t like his lack of confidence in _me._

          “What do you mean?” I asked.

          Cas bowed his head. “Listen.” He met my eyes. “The main reason I burned out the last of my grace to save you yesterday was so you could take over command of Heaven.”

          I glared at him. “Excuse me?”

          “Heaven needs you, Celeste.”

          My heart was racing as I felt an unfamiliar rage burning towards my brother. “Pray tell, big brother,” I said, hardening my heart, “what made you think I _wanted_ to return to Heaven?”

          “I didn’t think it through that far.”

          “Obviously!”

          “Cel,” Cas said calmly, holding out his hands, “that’s not what’s wrong.”

          I narrowed my eyes. “Okay.”

          Cas sighed, lowering his hands. “When I was shopping for the boys, Maliah fell to earth to see me. She was wounded, bleeding from her stomach. I couldn’t heal her.” My eyes went wide. “She was stabbed with quicksilver by Astol.”

          “Quicksilver,” I gasped.

          Quicksilver was an incredibly rare weapon against angels. Such weapons were made from a very rare metal called Yttrium that was sanctified and made into Holy Metal. The sanctified Yttrium was then heated with Holy Fire, which was incredibly difficult and expensive to sustain, since Holy Oil was incredibly rare and did not burn very hot—certainly not hot enough to liquefy the Yttrium and make it craftable without a huge supply and a lot of skill. Holy Water was used to repeatedly cool and form it into the blades. Angels were powerless to do anything against such a Holy heavy weapon. There were only two quicksilver blades known to exist in the world, and both had been lost through time. Apparently, Astol had gotten her hands on one.

          “That’s not all,” Cas said. “Maliah said Astol was angry about your threat to Heaven last night.” He sighed. “And that she was going to find a way to get Michael out of that cage to kill you and retake command of Heaven.”

          I sighed and rubbed my hand over my face. I turned away from him, walking toward the bank of the stream with my hands on my hips. I paused at the edge of the water and looked out toward the landscape I loved so much—the mountain in front of me, the stream at my feet. I wanted to weep again, but I was in my warrior persona. Tears wouldn’t come right now.

          So this was why Cas was so sure I had something to worry about. Michael was the only angel in all of creation who could defeat me. He was my superior, my mentor, my teacher. He’d taught me everything I knew. I wouldn’t stand a chance against him if he were let out of that cage. Plus, I was certain that there was no way Michael would be let out of the cage without Lucifer slipping out too. Both of them would want to finish the apocalypse. Without Sam and Dean as vessels, though, I wasn’t certain how well that would go over for my big brothers.

          “Do the Winchesters know?” I asked Cas.

          Castiel stepped up next to me. “No. You and I are the only ones.”

          “The keys to the cage. Where are those?”

          “Sam and Dean have them.”

          I nodded. “But that doesn’t mean much. There’s another way to open the cage without the keys.”

          “There always is,” Cas said, sounding exhausted.

          I sighed, crossed my arms over my chest, and cast a sidelong glance at Cas. “So you only saved me so I would return to Heaven in command.”

          “That was the main reason.” He looked over at me with pleading eyes. “Heaven needs a leader. You’re the only archangel left.”

          “Cas, I haven’t even agreed to return home yet, and already division is forming over my return?”

          Cas sighed. “Yes.”

          I felt something unfamiliar start to come over me; I was pretty certain it was pride. I shook my head. “I’m not going back there.”

          Cas looked at me, astonished. “Celeste, you can’t be—”

          “I am deathly serious,” I said as I faced him. His eyes were wide as he waited for me to explain. I bowed my head for a moment. “Look, Heaven is clearly beyond repair, Cas.” I looked up and met his eyes. “If the angels are rejecting even _me_ , the one who is rightfully in charge of Heaven”—I shook my head—“there is no hope for it.” I glared up at the sky, seeking out Astol’s energy signature, and glared at her. She was far away and separate from the gathering angels above, but she wasn’t alone. I sensed a large group of followers with her. “They have zero respect for authority and chain of command. _Zero!_ ” I looked back at Cas and shook my head again. “They’ve had a taste of free will, and I’m not going to waste my time trying to unite a Heaven that doesn’t want to be united. I have land to tend to and horses to take care of and mountain views to enjoy.”

          I walked past Castiel, intending to leave, when suddenly two dozen angels appeared in a line in front of me. Cas was immediately at my side. We both took low battle stances as I made the Glory Blades appear in my hands while he made his archangel blade appear. I read their energy and realized they had been members of Astol’s group I’d just been looking at.

          The front runner of this group, Yasha, stepped forward with a nasty glare on her face. “You’re wise to not want to return to Heaven, Celeste. But if you were truly wise, you would disappear from the ends of the earth. When Michael is released, he is going to flay you alive for what you did to him, leaving him down there with Lucifer.”

          I grinned at this foolish girl. “I’m sorry, are _you_ trying to intimidate me? You should stick with kissing Astol’s ass.” I felt my eyes go wide with warning. “I am _way_ out of your league, sister.”

          She smiled self-satisfactorily. “That may be”—she tried to look scary by glaring—“but there are twenty-four of us and two of you. I think we have the advantage.”

          I smirked. “Like I said,” I wrinkled my nose briefly, “stick with kissing Astol’s ass because thinking is not a strong suit of yours right now, Yasha.”

          Her eyes widened. “You bitch!”

          My brow went up. “Takes one to know one.”

          Suddenly, before either one of us could move, I saw the tip of an angel blade erupt from her chest. The inside of her mouth and her eye sockets lit up with white light, and a magical roar sounded as her grace and existence was extinguished. When she fell dead to the ground, I saw Dean Winchester behind her, looking down at her body. “Cel’s right. Thinking is not your strong suit.”

          I instantly made my eyes glow blue and lit myself up, harnessing my rarest power, power only God and Michael had, as the other angels made for Dean and Sam, who was standing behind his brother with his own angel blade. As my siblings closed in, the world around me got incredibly heavy and thick as I slowed time down to a near stop.

          These damn Winchesters! Their bravery was ridiculous and borderline stupid! Strolling into a pack of twenty-four angels? I took a moment to shake my head and smile though, admiring the fact that they managed to kill an angel each in this moment.

          I put myself between Dean and Sam, shielding them both under my wings, and lifted the time stop. The weapons of my brothers and sisters grazed off my feathers harmlessly. Castiel was instantly in battle with me, stabbing the angel closest to him in the stomach. I cut upwards with my right hand, across the chest of my closest brother, and he evaporated into ash. I immediately spun around, stabbing another sister in the throat, and she evaporated. I brought both the Glory Blades across the throat of another brother, slitting his skin two ways before he, too, was turned to ash.

          Suddenly, I heard a loud chorus of magical death roars, and then everything went silent except for the rushing of the stream beside me. I looked around at the scattered dead bodies of the two dozen angels that had attacked, and then looked up and saw that some other brothers and sisters had joined me and Castiel in the fight. I felt a little bemused. It wasn’t like I couldn’t handle two dozen angels myself. I sighed as I looked into the eyes of my siblings that had joined me. They all looked sullen and ashamed, and I wasn’t completely sure why. Perhaps they were acutely aware of the failures I’d accused them of while talking to Castiel.

          “Celeste,” Castiel suddenly said, stepping forward. Dean helped up Sam, who had fallen on the ground. Both of them looked at the other angels with suspicion. Cas came and stood right in front of me, his eyes pleading. “Please come home. Heaven needs you.”

          I steeled myself. I wanted to for Castiel, but only for Castiel. I had no other reason to do so. I shook my head. “No.”

          “Celeste,” another brother of mine, Dorian, said, stepping up to me. “Not everyone is against you. Astol is the only, _single_ faction left. If we can deal with her, Heaven can be reunited again under proper authority. Please. Come lead us.”

          I shook my head as an unfamiliar feeling welled up in me. Fear. Though the feeling was new, I knew its origin; I knew where it was rooted. “No,” I said again and turned around, walking past Sam and Dean. Glancing up, I caught sight of my horses, which they must have ridden here.

          “Celeste!” Cas called.

          I couldn’t stand the pleading in his voice, so I flew off, picking up my horses on the way, and headed to my barn.

Part Two: Exposed Root

_Celeste_

          I had a feeling Castiel wasn’t going to leave this alone, but I didn’t expect Dean Winchester to be the one to enter the barn. He gently pushed the door open and peered in. Spotting me sitting on a bale of hay in front of my horse’s stalls, he came in.

          “Is this the part where you try to convince me to go home?” I asked.

          Dean sat on the hay bale next to me and rested his arms on his knees. “I don’t care whether or not you go home.”

          “Good.”

          “But Cas does.”

          I sighed and shook my head. “So you’re here to argue on his behalf? Cas is a big boy. He can handle his own debates.”

          Dean chuckled. “Uh, no he can’t. Besides, I’m not here to argue anything. I’m here to find out why you don’t want to go back.”

          “Why do you care?”

          “I don’t.”

          “Good, then if there is nothing to discuss or argue, I guess you can go.”

          Dean sighed. “You’re stubborn for an angel, you know that?”

          I shrugged. “I told you I can be just as stubborn as you, probably more so. We’re soldiers, not fluffy winged harp players.”

          “I get that,” Dean said, “but you seem to have an issue you don’t want to talk about.”

          “Not really.”

          “It’s okay, because I have a weapon that’ll make you talk.”

          I looked at him suspiciously. Was he threatening me? I wasn’t sure if it was my imagination or not, but he seemed to be getting playful with me. Youthful mischief danced in his eyes as he pulled out a piece of straw from the hay bale and stuck it in his mouth. I couldn’t help smiling a little. “I’m pretty much immune to every weapon, Dean.”

          “Not this one,” he said smiling. He _was_ being playful! “Sam,” Dean called.

          I looked up and saw Sam Winchester come into the barn with his lovely puppy dog eyes on me. The genuine care and compassion in those eyes, completely trustworthy, seemed to reach out and wrap around me, making me feel safe and secure.

          I sighed and rolled my eyes.

          “Sam’s better at this ‘feelings’ thing than I am,” Dean said as Sam came over.

          Sam grabbed a bale of hay from beside me, set it down in front of me, and sat on it, resting his elbows on his knees. The look in his eyes made my insides melt. Dean was right—I wasn’t immune to this weapon.

          “Talk to me,” Sam said.

          I sighed. “About what?”

          “Why are you so afraid to go home?”

          “Afraid?” I cried. “I’m not afraid to go home! I…”

          Sam didn’t move. He didn’t even flinch. But I cut myself off when it was clear he wasn’t buying what I was saying. I bowed my head and sighed. “I don’t know. A lot of reasons.”

          He shrugged. “Give me one.”

          I met his eyes and then glanced over at Dean. I couldn’t believe they were expressing compassion and care toward me. They didn’t know me, and I was well aware of what my siblings had done to them in the past. They had every reason to distrust angels, yet they genuinely seemed concerned for me. It was sort of strange.

          “For one, I don’t want to leave here,” was my first reason.

          Sam just nodded.

          “Because you know that if you go home,” Dean said, “there’s nothing but ugliness waiting for you?”

          I sighed. “Not even that. I can deal with ugliness. I just…” I debated whether or not to expose the real root of my fear. I met Sam’s soft, compassionate eyes and then Dean’s steady, fearless ones, and my resolve fell. “I’m afraid that if I take command of Heaven I will turn into my brother—faithless, uncompassionate, vindictive, petty, with no love for humans that angels are supposed to have.”

          I met both their eyes as they looked at each other before looking back towards me. “Well, you don’t have to worry about that,” Sam said.

          I looked at him like he was stupid. “Oh really? Are you _that_ familiar with eternity that you know what it does to angels? How it changes them, in increments inconceivable to even immortals, into what Michael became.” I swallowed heavily as my heart sank. “My brother wasn’t always the way he’d ended up when you met him. None of my siblings were. Even Lucifer wasn’t.” I swallowed as I felt those stupid tears well up again. Damn. Dean hadn’t been joking about Sam’s eyes being a weapon. He could even penetrate my warrior wall. “Time—time with them in positions of power—changed them into the vile, evil, disloyal dicks they became.” I shook my head. “I don’t want to become that.”

          “You won’t,” Sam said plainly.

          Oh, typical human talk; complete and utter lack of understanding of immortality. I shook my head. “You’re a human. You don’t understand.”

          Sam leaned forward a little, putting more weight on his elbows on his knees. “I may not understand eternity, but I know that the first two choices you made with your free will were selfless acts of bravery. That pretty much tells me all I need to know about you. You will _not_ become your brother.”

          “Two choices?” I asked, confused.

          “The first,” Sam said counting off his finger, “was risking everything you were and are and all of Heaven to come down to rescue me from Hell. The second”—he paused—“was leaving Michael in that cage.” My eyes went wide. “I heard the conversation you had with him when you were trying to escape with Adam.”

          I bolted to my feet, putting my back to them, and walked a few paces away. I heard the rustling of the hay as Sam also stood. “That choice,” he continued, “that difficult choice that I can’t begin to understand, is what defines you. You will not become Michael. The very first choices you made with free will are proof of that.”

          “Cel,” I heard Dean say softly behind me as the hay rustled under him and he stood as well. “What happened between you and Michael down there?”

          I stayed quiet as I relived the memory, the pain and horror of what I had seen and heard down there—Michael being partly of the cause of it. I had expected it from Lucifer, who’d been already cast down before I was even created, but I’d grown up with Michael. After only two weeks on the sidelines, not even participating in the pain, watching what my big brother had become still affected me a year after I left.

          I heard footsteps come towards me and Dean’s lovely face appeared beside mine. I met his eyes and saw compassion in them. It was out of character. Compassion was Sam’s strength, not Dean’s. Dean was the steel to Sam’s satin. I couldn’t even speak, but as I looked in Dean’s eyes I saw them soften on a deep level before he put his arms around me and pulled me against his chest in a safe and strong embrace. I could have melted into the man from how safe I suddenly felt in his arms. It was actually a little disconcerting, how an archangel like me could feel safe in the arms of a human, but I didn’t care. I let him hold me and waited as his strength seemed to seep into me.

          “Michael ordered me to let him out of the cage,” I said without thinking. Dean gently pulled away but didn’t back off, looking down into my face with that deep compassion still stirring in his eyes. “I’m an angel, a soldier. My entire existence had been following orders without question, doing what I was told, so I almost did.” I looked at Sam and he looked at me with that softness in his eyes, nodding, encouraging me to continue telling Dean what Sam already knew. I looked down, clearing my throat, and took a step back from Dean. I turned and went to my horses, petting Lolli’s nose. “But I looked at Adam in my arms—a human, an innocent human being, mutilated beyond recognition _by my brothers_ ,” I said in a desperate, angry whisper, and the tears burst forth. I shook my head and looked into Lolli’s soft brown eyes. “And I had witnessed what they’d done to Sam.” The tears dripped off my chin like a steady rain. “So I told Michael that he was a monster and that he belonged in the cage with Lucifer because he was no different than him. And I left.”

          Sam came up to my side, looking at my face with those compassionate eyes. “We were supposed to protect humans,” I said in a whisper. “Not hurt them. Not torture them. That’s what Hell was for! Michael should have protected you and Adam in that cage!” I bowed my head and squeezed my eyes shut. “If Michael, _Michael_ could forget the core basis of our existence, to protect humans”—I shook my head and looked back up in Sam’s eyes—“there is no telling what I’ll become if I take a position of power in Heaven.”

          It was Sam’s turn to pull me into an embrace. I rested my face against his chest and he rested his chin on top of my head and held me tightly. The safety these Winchesters provided in their embraces was something unbelievable. I wondered if all humans possessed this powerful, comforting quality. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it was just these two.

          “Cel,” I heard from behind. All three of us looked to see Castiel standing there with regretful eyes and his hands in the pockets of his trench coat. I pulled away from Sam and didn’t even have the strength to speak.

          Dean was the one who stepped forward. “Cas, listen buddy. I gotta side with Celeste here.”

          Castiel nodded and came forward. “I agree.” He sighed. “My only fear is”—he met my eyes—“if you don’t take over command of Heaven, who will?”

          I went to stand in front of him. “Listen, Cas,” I said, “when Heaven is ready to be under someone’s command again, come and get me, and I’ll see what I can do. Until then, there is no point for me to return.”

          Castiel nodded. “I’ll do my best to get Heaven back in order for you.” He glanced at the boys. “And these two have work of their own to get back to.”

          I nodded. “Do you guys want to eat something first? It’s past lunch time.”

          “Thanks Cel”—Dean came around to stand in front of me—“for everything, but we better get going.”

          I nodded as an unexpected pain and longing suddenly erupted in my chest. I realized I didn’t want them to leave, but I wasn’t about to try to stop them either. “I’ll walk you to your car.”

          We walked to the Impala. Dean wasn’t up for driving so Sam went to the driver’s side. Cas stood next to me as Dean opened the passenger side door. Dean turned to face me. “I know ‘thank you’ seems kind of ridiculous after what you did for me”—he nodded—“but thank you.”

          I nodded back. “Listen, if you have any nightmares tonight, or any other night”—I cleared my throat, caught off guard by my own words—“you can always pray to me. I’ll hear you.”

          He smiled a little. “Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.”

          I nodded. “Good.”

          He didn’t get into the car right away, and, when he hesitated, I looked up and found my eyes locked with his. I wasn’t sure what to do. He was looking at me so intently, so purposefully, and I didn’t know what it meant. Suddenly, he leaned forward and pressed his lips against mine. Shocked and pleasantly overwhelmed by the gesture, I didn’t move. I was certain that there was something I was supposed to be doing, but I found myself just enjoying his lips on mine. After a few moments, he gently pulled away, and when my eyes opened, his green ones filled my sight.

          “Thank you,” he said softly.

          I could only nod my head.

          With a last small smile, he climbed into the car and closed the door. As Sam started it up and began to back out of my driveway, I caught a glimpse of the bouquet of flowers I had given Dean earlier today sitting in the middle of the seat next to him. I smiled broadly as I watched after them until the dust that the Impala kicked up had cleared.

          “I guess I’m going to get to work, too,” Cas said next to me. I faced him and realized his eyes were still sad.

          I tilted my head sympathetically. “I’m sorry, Cas.” I said.

          He nodded. “Your reasoning is sound enough. I don’t want you to become Michael either.”

          I smiled appreciatively and then drew Castiel into a hug. He returned the embrace, and we smiled a sad smile at each other as we pulled away. “Take care of those Winchester boys, Cas. Don’t get so wrapped up in Heaven’s crap that you forget about them.”

          Cas smiled. “I won’t.”

          “And let me know if Heaven gets back under control again, even a little bit.”

          He nodded. “I will.”

          “And stay in touch too, huh?” I gave his shoulder a small push. “I missed you, big brother.”

          He gave my shoulder the same small push and smiled shyly. “I missed you, too.”

          I grinned. “I’ll keep my fridge properly stocked now that you have a soul, so drop in for a meal anytime, okay?”

          Cas nodded again. “I will.”

          We looked at each other sadly again. “Bye,” he said.

          “Bye,” I replied with a parting smile, and he flew off, disappearing from my sight.

          I sighed heavily as I put my hands in my pockets and headed back towards my house alone, feeling a longing in my chest that I wasn’t familiar with.

          I paused at my front door a moment and then turned around and glared up at Heaven, looking for Astol’s energy signature. I couldn’t find it there, but it didn’t matter. “Astol,” I said in a form of prayer to her that she would hear anywhere. “You stay away from my boys, you bitch.” I narrowed my eyes as if I were looking right at her face. “Or you _will_ deal with me, and it won’t be pleasant.” With a final glare at nothing, I headed into my house.

 

 

Part Three: The Last Straw

_Celeste_

          “It’s been six months,” I said to the headstone at my feet, “since my visit from Castiel and the Winchester boys.” It was a cool, crisp day in November and the sun was shining brilliantly, but my heart was so heavy. “I miss them. Dean and Sam haven’t prayed to me. Castiel hasn’t come to visit. I had a month worth of food go bad waiting for him.”

          I sighed heavily as I gazed at the rock that read, “Brian Pike. Loving Husband and Dearly Missed Friend.” It was the grave of my vessel’s husband, who had died of leukemia two years ago today. He knew his wife had let an angel occupy her, and he had become a very dear friend to me in the year and a half we shared together while he waited to pass on, or “go home” he called it.

          “I keep asking myself if I made a mistake,” I told the headstone. “Should I have gone back to Heaven when Cas asked? Should I have gone with Dean and Sam when they left?”

           I thought about the memories in the house Brian and I had shared together and shook my head. “No, I made the right choice,” I said. “I just wish I understood this longing and emptiness I feel. It’s been building since they left and it’s maddening.” I pressed my lips together and shoved my hands into the pockets of my pea coat. “I miss you, too. You were a human I could talk to about this, a _man_ I could talk to about this. You would help me understand.” I rocked back and forth on my heels uncomfortably. “I think about Dean a lot. The way he kissed me. That’s embarrassing.” I sighed. “I worry about him, too. He’d been cured of being a demon for not even a full day before I just let him drive off!”

          I paused a moment and thought about Dean, and then Sam, and then Cas. “Cas would have come to tell me if something happened to Heaven or the Winchesters, right?” I asked the headstone as if it would answer me. “Of course he would have,” I said, though deep down I wasn’t sure that was true. I wasn’t sure Castiel was willing to impose on my life again because the last time he did, Astol had threatened to let Michael out of the cage to kill me. Cas would be guilt-ridden with the thought of that and use it to justify staying away from me. I knew my brother.

          I sighed and then bent down to kiss the top of the headstone. “I miss you, Brian. You’d better be at peace, or I just might raise Hell to make sure you are.” I smiled and began to walk back to my truck to head home.

          I went into my house and changed into a pair of jeans, a grey tank top, and a grey and blue open flannel shirt. I grabbed my cowgirl hat and headed straight to my barn. I hadn’t tended to my babies yet, and I was certain they were going to get anxious. The morning waned on as I worked, my heart on Castiel and the Winchesters, as it always seemed to be these days.

          I had just begun to pitch some new hay into my horse’s stalls when I heard a loud and strained scream. “Celeste!!!!”

          I jumped and spun around so fast I wasn’t even completely sure what had happened. The scream sounded like it was right behind me, but I saw only an empty barn. As my heart raced and I panted, I thought about that scream. It had sounded like Castiel, but the echo that followed made me realize it was a prayer.

          “Cas?” I called in a prayer, so he would hear me wherever he was. “Is something wrong?”

          Silence.

          I dropped my pitchfork as panic began to rise up in my chest. “Castiel?!” I cried.

          I flew off with such force my barn shook at its foundation. I searched the globe for his energy signature and realized he was warded from me! My heart raced as I failed to find my brother. I had to think quickly! I looked for Dean Winchester’s energy signature. Warded too! I tried Sam. Nothing!

          I landed in the middle of an open grass field somewhere in Washington State and looked around in a pure state of fear. All three of them being warded from me was not a good sign! It was powerful warding, too, if even _I_ couldn’t find them!

          Okay, think! I had to think. I looked down at my vessel and recalled the warding I had done to myself on her skeleton to hide me from every angel except Castiel. I wondered if I could reverse engineer the energy of these sigils. Right now they left an open path for Cas to find me if he went looking. Maybe I could flip the magic and it would lead me to Castiel. I closed my eyes and bowed my head as I rearranged the magic of the sigils on my vessel’s bones.

          Suddenly, Castiel’s energy blazed like a beacon! I flew off instantly and landed in another wide-open grass plain with a mountain range so far in the distance that it only looked like a purple stripe on the horizon. My eyes widened at the scene before me. One look at it and I knew what was happening. It was the setting of the ritual that would open the cage in Hell that Michael and Lucifer were in!

          The centerpiece of this mayhem was a giant cage, twenty square feet in height and width, made of human skeletons. The skeletons were glowing a soft blue with faint traces of angelic grace; there was only one way that would happen. The cage was made from the bones of one hundred human angelic vessels that had been skinned alive while the angel was locked inside. Inside the bone cage were the necessary sacrifices to make the ritual work—a perfect pure soul, a black soul made pure, and a pure soul made black. Castiel, Sam, and Dean. Castiel had an angelic, perfect soul with no stain. Sam had had demon blood in him since he was six months old and had been Lucifer’s vessel, yet he’d been made pure by the trials of the angel tablet. Dean had been a righteous man of God, Michael’s vessel, before he became a Knight of Hell. They were the perfect and only sacrifices in all of humanity that could make this happen.

          The cage was surrounded on all sides by a hundred angels, all of them in dark business suits and ties, who noticed my arrival instantly. They turned to face me. My heart clenched when I saw that all of them held quicksilver blades. “Son of a…” I whispered. It wasn’t fear…I was pissed! Only two of those blades were supposed to exist in the world, and there was only one way Astol could have a hundred of them. She’d gone back in time to the silversmith, the only person in all of history who could make them, and forced her to make a hundred more.

          Cas, Sam, and Dean noticed me and stood up in the cage, looking after me. On the far side of the grass field, on the other side of the cage, I saw Astol. Dressed in a black gown, she stood at the ritual alter holding a quicksilver blade herself.

          “Cas,” I told him in a tone of warning, drawing Astol’s astonished attention. “Is there some reason you didn’t inform me about this?” Astol’s eyes widened in utter terror at seeing me, and I could see her start shaking from fifty yards away. With a steady gaze, I locked Astol in her vessel and magically bolted her feet to the grass so she couldn’t run. My eyes got dangerous. “I told you that you would deal with me if you didn’t stay away from them, and that it wouldn’t be pleasant.”

          “Cel,” she gasped, “Please. I just…”

          Without my gaze wavering, I cut off her voice so she could not speak. “Since you refused to take my good advice, you _will_ deal with me now.” I took my cowgirl hat off and tossed it to the ground without taking my eyes off Astol. “Welcome to Getting Your Ass Kicked 101.”

          I lit myself up with my magic, changing my farm girl outfit into an ensemble I hadn’t worn since my last trip to Hell to try to get Sam out of Michael and Lucifer’s cage. It was a sleeveless white breastplate and silky white pants and white combat boots—Heaven’s armor. I made my battle brace appear on my right wrist and Castiel’s appear on my left so I’d have it ready when I was able to give it back to him. Finally, I made the Glory Blades appear in my hands just as I advanced toward my nearest siblings. This faction was about to get annihilated!

          “Cas,” I heard Dean say from the cage sounding worried. “There are a hundred angels out there. Can she take them all by herself?”

          I met Castiel’s eyes across the field as his teeth clenched. “Yeah,” he said, his eyes becoming intense. He knew what was about to happen.

          I allowed the heaviness of slowing time down envelop me as I entered the circle of my first attacking brothers and sisters. I slashed up one’s stomach and watched him evaporate. I spun around under the slowly falling blade of a nearby sister and cut her downward across her chest. At the same time I slashed upward with my other blade into the face of another. I stabbed another in the throat and cut only the arm of yet another, but she evaporated as I made my way to that hateful cage with barely a pause.

 _This_ was why no one challenged Michael! _This_ was why Michael ruled Heaven since creation! This _, this_ was how Michael had cast Lucifer down!!! Did they think my apprenticeship under him was a lie, or a joke? My stupid, stupid siblings!

          The seventeen angels nearest to me were dead. I lifted the time slow for a few seconds to allow the next wave of my siblings to get within reach of the Glory Blades before I slowed it down again. I ducked and spun under another slowly falling quicksilver blade and slashed one of the Glory Blades up across a sister’s chest, while my other Blade went backwards into the stomach of a brother behind me. I crossed both blades downward, slicing an X into the chest of a sister in front of me. Quickly, eight more angels were down and I was standing in front of the cage.

          I looked into Castiel’s intense eyes, which hadn’t caught up with my movements yet and I smiled. We hadn’t fought together since getting Dean out of Hell. I looked over my shoulder to see eleven angels still behind me, but sixty-four were on the other side of the cage.

          I put my Glory Blades in the sheaths strapped to my back and lifted the time slow, then quickly shimmied up the bones that made up a wall of the cage. I ran across the top and flipped back down to the ground, landing in a crouch. I looked through the cage to the angels I’d just left in the dust as I straightened to my full height. I pulled out one of my Glory Blades from behind me and, casting a grin at Castiel, tossed it up in the air. I leapt up, bringing my leg around the side of my body and kicking the hilt of the Blade. It sailed through the bone bars and out the other side, nailing one of my brothers in the throat. I held out my hand, slowing time down again, watched the Blade sail back to me and snatched it out of the air. I spun around and sliced an upward arc across the chest of a brother while back-slashing across the throat of another with the Blade in my other hand. One of my sisters was too close to me, so I brought my foot up and kicked her square in the chest, knocking her onto her back in order to give myself some distance.

          The remaining ten angels who had been on opposite side of the cage, made their way around the edges of it to where I was. I lifted the time slow for one instant as I brought the Glory Blades together. “Castiel!” I cried, as a long bright light formed in my hands. “Get them down!”

          I put the time slow back on and watched as my Glory Blades formed into a long beam of Heaven’s light. Castiel yanked Sam and Dean onto the floor of the cage, putting them, and himself, flat on their stomachs. I brought the beam of light out to my side and across the entire bottom of the cage. Blue sparks of grace flew out of the bones in slow motion as I cut them. The ten angels coming at me were evaporated as the beam touched them as well. The top half of the cage toppled over to the side, releasing Castiel, Sam and Dean.

          The remaining sixty-two angels behind me were far enough away that I had a few moments, so I lifted the time slow. I pulled apart the beam of light so I was holding the two Glory Blades once again. Castiel leapt to his feet and came toward me. Dean and Sam looked up in bewildered amazement.

          “Stay here!” Cas said over his shoulder to the boys. They nodded without a word.

          I held the Glory Blades in one hand and gripped Cas under his arm, pulling him over what was left of the bones on the bottom. He stood in front of me with incredible intensity in his eyes. “Together on the battlefield again, huh, big brother?” I said as I touched the battle brace on my left wrist, unclasping it, and handed it to him.

          He took it and lifted the sleeve of his trench coat. “Hell yes,” he said as he snapped it on.

          Both of us lifted our arms and slammed the sides of our wrists together, locking the cuffs and initiating the cuff-meld. Heaven’s light surrounded us completely, and I felt Cas’s essence merge with mine as we ceased being two separate angels in mind and action and became one deadly one. His appearance melted from the trench coat and suit he was wearing into his Heavenly armor—sleeveless white breastplate, white pants, and white combat boots. Two archangel blades appeared in his hand while I held the Glory Blades.

          Our cuffs unlocked, and with our eyes still lit up, we advanced toward our remaining adversaries without the time slow. Cas and I didn’t need it while in a meld together. Cas lunged upwards with an archangel blade, planting the tip up between a set of ribs while I sliced across the face of one near me. A sister tried to slash me across my stomach with a quicksilver blade, but I arched backwards and then immediately turned and ran towards Castiel, who had his back to me. Seeing what I was about to do in the meld anyway, he was ready. As the angel followed me, I lifted one foot onto Castiel’s lower back and pushed myself up. His hand was already over his shoulder, waiting for my other foot. As soon as I placed it in his hand, he pushed upward, flipping me over his head so the angel chasing me was underneath me, and I stabbed down into the base of her neck. She was evaporated ash before I even landed on my feet behind Cas again. Castiel completely flipped an angel up over his head towards me, and I brought the Glory Blades across that angel’s stomach evaporating him before he even hit the ground.

          One by one they fell. I genuinely wondered if they were suicidal, though I wasn’t sure if the thought initiated from me or Castiel. I couldn’t be beaten, and they knew I wouldn’t let them raise Michael or finish the apocalypse, but they didn’t stop or surrender. Perhaps they were the last pack that hadn’t gotten a handle of free will yet and couldn’t deal with it. They’d rather die than not know what was _supposed_ to happen.

          Cas stabbed a brother through the side of his neck with one blade, while I slashed across the throat of another. When no angels were left, we went straight for Astol. Without a pause or single hesitation, even as her eyes widened in fear, I cut through her neck from the back out the front, while Cas came through front and out the back. Her head popped off like a dandelion blossom before she evaporated into ash.

 

Part Four: Every End is Another Beginning

_Celeste_

          The magic of the cuffs faded and I felt my and Castiel’s essence get pulled apart until we were separated again. Cas’ appearance melted back into him in a suit and trench coat and mine melted back into a grey and blue open flannel shirt, grey tank top, and jeans. I blew out a breath as the inevitable guilt of killing my siblings settled in. Cas and I both bowed our head in reverence and pain for a moment. We always did after a battle, so we wouldn’t get too callous. Acknowledging what had happened and what we had done helped us accept it.

          I turned around as footsteps came towards us from behind me. Sam and Dean were approaching, Dean carrying my cowgirl hat. He stepped in front of me with a barely there smile and handed it to me. I sighed and took it from him, putting it on my head.

          “Thanks for coming, Cel,” Dean said.

          “Yeah well, I would have gotten here sooner if one of you would have called or prayed to me.” I gave them all a glare.

          “We did,” Sam said gently.

          My brows dropped. “What?”

          “We prayed to you. Both of us did, a lot,” Sam replied.

          “What do you mean? I didn’t hear anything.”

          Castiel stepped forward. “Astol blocked you from hearing our prayers months ago, probably the moment we left your house.”

          “We thought you just didn’t want to answer,” Dean said, looking the most broken over it, but trying his damnedest to hide it.

          I looked at Cas. “You actually thought I would be so cold as to ignore your prayers?”

          He shook his head. “I didn’t pray to you. I kept my distance to protect you. Sam and Dean were praying to you.”

          I sighed in frustration. My heart was broken. They thought I had abandoned them. Only God knew how badly they had needed me, or how hard they had prayed for me over the past six months. “Why didn’t you come ask where I was and what the hell I was doing when Sam and Dean told you I wasn’t answering their prayers?”

          “They didn’t tell me you didn’t answer them. They didn’t even tell me they prayed to you until all three of us were in that cage. I knew there was something wrong if you weren’t answering them.” He sighed. “I realized it a little too late, unfortunately. But when we became aware of what happened, I was able to carve one sigil into the bones of the cage to get one prayer out.”

          I nodded. “My name. I heard that one.” I stared at him. “How did you carve the bone?”

          “I used my fingernails.”

          My brows went up. “Oh.” I looked at the boys regretfully. “I’m so sorry. I guess I just didn’t realize how hell-bent Astol was on releasing Michael,” I sighed, “and on killing me. I should have checked in when I didn’t hear from you, but I thought”—I shrugged—“I thought you were done with me once you left my house.”

          “Celeste,” Sam said, stepping forward. “You saved my brother’s life. You’ll always be a part of our lives because of that.”

          I smiled. “Well good. I'm glad for that.” Sam smiled in return. I sighed, looking around the battlefield. “Listen, let’s get you guys out of here, huh?”

          “Mind if we stop by your place?” Sam asked with a grin. "I think a visit is a little overdue."

          I grinned. “I’ll cook.”

          “And we can go for a horseback ride?” Dean said a little flirtatiously.

          I giggled like a fool. “You bet.” Oh how I missed them all. I looked back at what was left of the bone cage and held up my hand. I lit up my eyes bright blue and in a bright flash of Heaven’s light, I burned the remnants of those tortured souls to cinders. “Rest in peace, my brothers and sisters.” With that, I stepped up to Sam and Dean and touched their shoulders, bringing them back to my place instantly.

          As soon as we landed, I couldn’t comprehend what I saw. I blinked when I saw a bright orange light in front of me. It wasn’t…I blinked again and my eyes went wide. No, this wasn’t happening! My house and barn were completely engulfed in flames!

          “No!” I screamed and tried to run toward them. Cas was in front of me before I knew it, holding me back.

          “No, Cel! No! It’s too late!”

          “My horses!” I struggled to try and get past him.

          “They’re gone! I’m sorry Cel, they’re gone.”

          “That’s Janice and Brian’s house!”

          “It’s gone,” Cas said, trying to calm me down. “It’s gone. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

          “No,” I said as sobs and emotions started choking me. I wasn’t seeing this. I wasn’t seeing this! It was gone. Completely gone. Everything. I rested my chin on Cas’s shoulder as tears filled my eyes.

          “I’m sorry, Cel,” he said embracing me. “I’m so sorry.”

          The emergency vehicles eventually showed up. They ushered all of us off the front lawn to the other side of the dirt road. I couldn’t take my eyes off the house as they began to douse it with water. So many memories there. So many laughs. That house had kept me safe and happy for the past three years. They were the best three years in my 6,000-year existence.

          “Cel,” Dean said stepping on front of me.

          He didn’t even say anything. All I saw was the compassion in his eyes and I burst into tears anew. I leaned forward, resting my forehead on his chest in desperate need of something I didn’t understand. He wrapped his arms around me and held me tight. I felt so defeated. Astol must have had some contingency plan to hurt me. Some rogue angel had done this, or it was a spell Astol cast as soon as I left to find Cas.

          I felt a hand on my back and looked to see Sam beside me, looking at me with those sympathetic, sad eyes. He didn’t say anything either, his expression said everything.

          We stayed on the side of the road until the sun went down and the house was reduced to nothing but a smoking pile of charcoal. The fire department expressed their condolences before leaving. My neighbor, who was actually five miles down the road, even came by to make sure I was okay. I was a mess. And the boys stayed with me whole time. They even joined me in walking the remains, possibly looking for the cause. An angel setting my house on fire didn’t need a cause, though.

          I was so lost in thought that I didn’t even see Dean crouch down next to me. “Are you all right?”

          I realized I’d been staring at a random piece of my burned house for far too long, mostly lost in thoughts of the wonderful things I had experienced here. I slipped my finger under the piece of wood I’d been staring at and flipped it over on itself before looking at Dean. “No, not really.”

          Dean paused, looking at the floor. “Look, I know it sucks but—”

          “Dean,” I said, tears in my eyes again as I looked up at the night sky. “Please don’t pretend you know what it feels like to lose a home. You’ve never had one.” I think I was being a bitch to get a reaction out of him. I wanted to get him mad at me, so I could get mad back and I could feel something, _anything_ , even anger, rather than this emptiness and defeat.

          He didn’t blow up at me like I expected, though. “You’re right. But I know what it’s like to lose something important to you.” I looked over at him. He gave me a small, sympathetic smile. “Welcome to the club.”

          After a moment I managed to smile at him even as the tears dripped down my cheeks. I looked away and wiped them with my sleeves and stood up. “Yeah thanks.” I put my hands in my back pockets and just stood there in the ruins of my house, still lost in thoughts and memories.

          Sam approached. “Listen, Cel,” he said slowly, “you could always come back with us to the bunker. Until you figure out what you’re going to do.”

          I sighed and looked at Castiel, who was still inspecting the damage, before I met Sam’s eyes. “Thanks Sam, but uh”—I bowed my head and shook it before looking at him once more—“I think I’d better head back to Heaven.” I shrugged helplessly. “Maybe try to start fixing this mess my idiot brothers and sisters made.”

          Sam nodded sadly. Dean took a step closer to stand beside me. “Well, I mean, you don’t have to do that right now.” I met his eyes and saw a strange mix of emotions there. He was trying to be playful, with a little charming half smile that came and went a couple times making him look nervous. He then met my eyes with what I perceived as a bit of longing. “Do you?”

          Sam picked up on some clue I was oblivious to, it seemed, and walked away with a little sly grin. I was confused and shrugged. “Not really, I guess. But what else am I going to do right now?”

          “I don’t know,” Dean said with a shrug. “Come back to the bunker for a little while? Regroup?”

          My brows dropped. “Dean, do you not want me to leave?”

          He looked in my eyes for a long moment before shaking his head. “No, I don’t,” he replied matter-of-factly.

          I put my hands in my front pockets trying not to smile. “Can I ask why?”

          “Because if you leave, I don’t know when or if I’ll see you again.”

          I couldn’t help the smile tugging at the corners of my lips. “And you’d like to see me again?”

          He nodded, his gaze into my eyes not faltering once, as he came up to stand right in front of me. “Yeah, I would.”

          I smiled and bowed my head a moment before meeting his eyes again. “Heaven can do without me for a little while longer I think,” I said crinkling my nose playfully.

          The smile that spread across Dean’s face nearly made my knees collapse. Then he leaned in and pressed his lips against mine. My knees did go weak and for a moment and I was certain Dean’s arm around my back was the only thing holding me up before I found my feet again. He pulled away, smiling as Sam and Cas approached.

          “I’m glad you’ll be returning home,” Cas said with a small smile before it faded slightly. “But I’m sorry for the circumstances in which you’re returning. You’ve lost a great deal here, I know.”

          “Thanks Cas, but I guess it wasn’t all a loss.” I smiled at them. “I got you guys out of the deal.”

          They all grinned and I realized Dean’s arm was still around my waist. I smiled at him and he smiled back. “Let’s go.”

          I nodded and then touched all of their shoulders and flew them all back to the bunker. I wasn’t sure how long I was going to stay, but I was going to enjoy it, however long it was. I wasn’t letting these three out of my sight for long again. They were too important, special, and unique. Flaws, burdens and all, they were the best beings I’d ever heard of existing, and I was happy to call them friends—and with Dean, perhaps more.

 

The End

(Or NOT the end…that is the question. :) Truth is, I have about 20 different episodes and 5 different arcs in my head for this fan fiction, but none of them are really pressing without some clamoring for them. So if you like this story, and would like more, ya gotta let me know. :) Leave Kudos and/or comments of what you think here; and/or find me on Twitter @Nichelle_Writes and harass me there. I promise I won’t mind, especially if you like my story. If I don’t hear any clamoring, it’s okay. These three chapters were the only ones I was really burning to tell, so maybe they are the only ones that needed telling. But that’s really up to you guys, my readers. Thanks all for taking the time to read!)


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